Unspeakables
by Ebenbild
Summary: Twenty one years after the war, the Death Eaters strike back and the Weasley, Potter and Lupin families die. Thank Merlin, Harry knows exactly what to do. "An' in the Minishtry… er… th' Depaaamen… er… Demammend… er… y'know… the mishterious thingy!... there'sh a roooom! A room foa time!" Oddly enough, this time Percy is along for the ride. Unspeakable! Harry and Percy, time travel.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Placing:**_ _After the war - could be canon…_

 _Just an idea I had, nothing more._

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 _ **UNSPEAKABLES**_

sSs

 _DEATH EATERS RETURN!_

 _ **Ottery St. Catchpole.**_ _(rs) After twenty one years of freedom, yesterday, the remaining forces of Lord Voldemort – back then known as 'You-Know-Who' or 'He-who-must-not-be-named' – returned with vengeance. In a terrorist attack they stormed the Burrow, home of the well known war hero Weasley-Potter family, and massacred the assembled family – consisting of nearly the whole Potter, Lupin and Weasley family – within minutes._

" _There have been some scuffles with some Death Eaters that escaped, in the past," Auror Dennis Creevy commented. "But up until now there was no evidence of a regrouping or of any other plans to take vengeance on those that killed their master."_

" _Upon the last years, the scuffles with the remaining Death Eaters declined steadily," another Auror said when ask. "We thought that we were finally rounding up their last hide-outs."_

 _Now, the hero family Weasley-Potter has to suffer for those believes. "It's disheartening," Headmistress Padma Thomas of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry commented. "Young Lily Potter was a gifted child with a great carrier ahead of her and young Rose Weasley has already shown her brilliance as a future potions mistress. I can't believe that those great minds of the future have been lost in a senseless attack like that!"_

" _We're grieving with Harry Potter and Percival Weasley, their uncles, husbands, sons and fathers, for the loss of their loved ones in such a cruel attack," commented Minister Daphne Greengrass. "Our hearts go out to them. May there be mercy for their souls in such a grievous hour."_

sSs

"Another one!" the bartender eyed his client carefully at that exclamation. When the man just stared back with blood-shot eyes, he sighed. "I think, my dear sir, that you have enough for today," he said but the man simply shook his head.

"No-oh!" he whined. "I can shtill ssssink… er… tinn… no… thhhingk!"

The bartender raised an eyebrow at that, but then decided to humor the intoxicated man and put down the bottle of whiskey in front of him.

"Well, here you go!" he grumbled. "Knock yourself out!"

"I will!" the man promised instantly and then grabbed the bottle after two or three missed attempts. "Sh easier t'fogett if ya drunk, ya know?" he commented and then hit his companion on the back. "Look at Pershy there! He'sh done-it riiiight!"

The bartender followed the man's hand to the man's companion and sighed when he saw the passed out man next to him.

"I see it," he said dryly and the other man grinned.

"Aye," he slurred. "An' I attemp t'follow hish egshamble!"

The bartender just sighed and wondered how he would get those two out of his pup at closing time.

In the end, it wasn't his problem.

Long before the end of the day, the two intoxicated man paid their bills and left – the other, passed-out one miraculously awake again.

xXxXx

Meanwhile the man and 'Pershy' wandered down the streets in muggle London, laughing drunkenly.

"An' in the Minishtry… er… th' Depaaamen… er… Demammend… er… y'know… the mishterious thingy!... there'sh a roooom! A room foa time! An' one foa love… an' death an'…" one of them said giggling.

"I know!" the other one said with all the seriousness a severely intoxicated person could enact. "I've sheen it! I've sheen it all!"

"Huh?" this time the first one turned to the other and nearly crashed into him when he used a little bit too much force to do so. "How so? Y'haven't been wif us back in fifth year…"

The second one laughed.

"But I'm 'n expeakable… unbeakable… er… I worked there since after Hogshwads!" he then explained patiently. "I've been recruited riiight out o' school!"

Now the first one stopped and reached out to grab the other ones shoulder. He needed a few attempts to get it right but wasn't bothered with that at least.

"Y'too?" he slurred. "Never knew y'also work there."

This time the second one looked at the first one confused.

"Huh?" he exclaimed. "I thought y're an autor… er… aurorr! Head aurorr t'be exact!"

"Oh… I am!" the other one cried and shook his head wildly. "But tha' doesn't mean tha' I'm not an umbeakable too!"

"Unshpeakable!" the other one corrected offended, not caring that he hadn't been able to say the word just minutes ago. "We're Unshpeakables, Potter!"

"Yeah, that," Potter replied not the least bothered to be corrected. "Never bothered t' tell anyone 'bout it. Shinsh I'm a field operative, there absolutely was nooo need, ye know, Pershy?"

This time Percy nodded wisely.

"Aye," he said. "Ash a field op there'sh definitely nooo need t' tell anyone 'bout shomeshing like that!"

Then he turned to resume his wanderings. The other man followed instantly, still leaning heavily on his shoulder.

"Ye know, I wish we shimply could use that time room," Potter murmured. "Then we could go back an' make everything alriiiight again!"

This time it was Percy who stopped and turned wide-eyed towards his drinking buddy.

"Y're brilliant, Harree!" he exclaimed with shining eyes. "We use th' time room an' make everything alright again!"

Harry Potter blinked at that confused.

"But Herminny shaid that time-travel that far back ish a no-no!" he uttered. "Shomeshing 'bout coming back ash an old man an' then dyin'…"

"But we're not coming back!" Percy said grinning. "So no no-no for ush!"

Harry thought that over.

"Sho we're going back 'till b'fore the war?" he asked.

Percy nodded so hard that he nearly toppled over.

"Farer than that!" he said grinning. "We're going back far enough t' shtop Voldeshort from sh' shtart! If we do-it, we should do-it riiight!"

Harry frowned at that.

"But what 'bout Grindelshmals… Grindlewalsh… that man b'fore Voldeshmarts!" he asked.

This time Percy thought that over.

"What d'ye know 'bout him?" he asked Harry. Harry shrugged.

"Noooothing," he said and Percy nodded gravely.

"I don't r'member much ash well," he told the other man and then concluded while shaking his head rapidly. "Sho there'sh no way we c't do anything t' help in that war!"

Harry thought that over for a few minutes, then he concluded that there was definitely nothing they could do and nodded as well.

"Sho we're jusht going back t' shtop Voldishwash!" he said satisfied with their plan. Percy nodded again.

"Let'sh go!" and with that he readied himself to apparate away. It was Harry who stopped him.

"But what 'bout reparationsh?" he asked and Percy stared at him confused, so Harry concluded that he had said something wrong and corrected himself. "Y'know, prepamationsh… er… repadarshionsh… er… y'know! Herminny'sh thingy!"

That stopped Percy.

"Y're riiiight!" he said. "My wife would ne'er forgive me if I left her shnowball-globesh behind!"

Harry nodded gravely.

In the end, they decided to apparate home first. So they first went to Percy's to collected his wife's snow-globes, his daughter's stuffed teddy and photo album, Percy's underwear – "Y'alwaysh need underwear when y're traveling, Harree!" – and Percy's Unspeakable uniform – "I can't go naked t' work, Harry!" – then they went to Harry's and collected his invisibility cloak, the marauders' map – "Y' can't go wishout proper preparashn, Pershy!" – Ginny's winter cloak and her silver hair-pin adored with emeralds – "She would kill me if I wouldn't bring shomeshing for the winter!" "But that'sh my shishter'sh cloak." "Yeah, she alwaysh inshishts in proper clothing!" – as well as some things from Harry's children, his photo albums, some of his socks – "Shocksh are veeery important, Pershy!" – and his Unspeakable and Auror uniforms as well – "Y' need it for work t'morrow, Harree!" – before they decided where to go next.

"We shtill need t' go t' Herminnee'sh!" Harry said gravely. "We need a bag t' carree everything and Herminny alwaysh inshishtsh on her bag!"

Since neither wanted to invoke the wrath of the now dead, but before that formidable witch, they went to Hermione's and Ron's next and collected the same beaded handbag she had brought with them on their Horcrux-hunt.

"Perfect!" Harry said. "That sh'd be all!"

But this time it was Percy who shook his head.

"My wife would kill me if I wouldn't bring shome money wif me. She alwaysh inshishtsh I bring shome!"

"Sho Gringottsh negsht!"

Surprisingly they survived the ride in Gringotts without throwing up or sobering the slightest and stood soon in front of Harry's vault.

"How mush d'ye think we should bring?" Harry asked while looking at his gold-filled vault. Percy just shrugged.

"Audrey normally collectsh the gold. I jusht carry it," he said. "Jusht fill up Herminny'sh bag."

That, they found out, was an impossible task with just the amount in Harry's vault so they continued on to Percy's.

"Shtill not full," Harry observed after they had emptied Percy's vault and Percy frowned.

"But there'sh nothing left t' fill it!" he exclaimed in dismay. Harry blinked at that and then looked inside the handbag.

"Maybe it'sh shtill enough," he said thoughtfully. "There have t'be shome Gallonsh in it! I've gott'n my pay yesterday!"

Percy nodded at that.

"Me ash well!" he said then shrugged. "Shoo, that sh'd be all. T' the room negsht!"

And with that the two intoxicated men were off again – this time to the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry. Neither of them had any problem at all entering the department since both of them worked there and so they entered the Room of Time just minutes later.

"There'sh no time turner there," Harry exclaimed in dismay, but Percy just shook his head and then proceeded to lock the room.

"Now we prodush our own shand of time!" he slurred. "I know exshactly how t' do that!"

Seconds later Harry Potter and Percy Weasley were gone without a trace.

xXxXxXx

The next morning Harry Potter sat up groaning. Next to him on the bed was lying Percy Weasley and a beaded handbag.

Harry frowned, but before he could even reach for the beaded bag, there was a knock on the door.

"Yes?"

The door opened and a young looking Tom, former innkeeper of the Leaky Cauldron entered.

"Your breakfasts' and the newspaper as ordered, sir," he said and set down the tray on the table at the window.

"Er… thank you," Harry said, not remembering that he had ordered breakfast – nor even remembering how he had gotten into the Leaky Cauldron in the first place. Tom just nodded and then left with a friendly goodbye.

For a moment, Harry stared at the door, then he summoned the newspaper.

It was the date that made him splutter in the end.

 _March 24, 1975,_ it read.

"Bloody hell," Harry muttered.

Then he decided that it was all too much for him after just waking up. So instead of pondering about their doings he grabbed the beaded handbag and opened it to summon some of his fresh clothes for today.

The only thing he got were socks… and his work clothes which he couldn't wear without something beneath.

"Bloody hell!" he exclaimed again.

 _What had they done?!_

sSsSsSsSsSs

 _Well, I was somehow inspired by 'Whiskey Time Travel' from Private Jenkins while writing this and since I couldn't get rid of the idea I decided to write it down in the end. xD_

 _I hope you liked it._

 _Ebenbild_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 _ **Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Placing:**_ _After the war - could be canon…_

 _Just an idea I had, nothing more._

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 _ **1975**_

sSs

When Percy woke up, something was different. For a moment he contemplated on it, then he frowned.

Audrey and Molly were gone.

Gone.

Not there anymore.

Lost to him.

Gone, simply gone.

And it hurt to think that.

Then an other part of strangeness entered his mind. For some reason, his bedroom had changed… And if that wasn't oddly enough, it was also occupied by Harry Potter, reading the newspaper.

Percy blinked and rubbed his eyes. The scene didn't change.

So he cleaned his glasses.

No, still the same.

"What by Merlin and Morgana are you doing here?" Percy finally said, and then winced. His own loud voice had given him a headache.

Harry looked up from the papers.

"I'm contemplating how we managed to screw up that much while drunk," he answered.

"Huh?"

And Harry threw him the papers.

"Today's newspaper," he said. "Look at the date."

Percy blinked, but in the end did as he was told.

 _March 24, 1975,_ it read.

Percy stared at it.

"You're joking," he finally said faintly and then looked up at the other man – just to close his eyes in dismay. "You're not," he groaned.

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Hmmm, I wonder how you guessed that, Percy," he said snorting.

"It's simple," Percy answered, this time slightly sneering. "You've clearly inhaled some time sand considering that you suddenly look like seventeen and not the thirty-nine year old I knew. I guess I can be happy that you at least didn't eat some of it even if you clearly decided to sniff on it quite thoroughly."

"Who said I didn't eat some?" Harry replied while rolling his eyes. "For all you know I might have, after all, we were both dead drunk."

Percy sneered at that.

"You would be dead if you had, Potter," he answered. "Inhaling time sand de-ages you, eating it ages you. If you do both, you die." It was long habit of censoring his language that kept the 'moron' in.

Harry frowned at that, but then nodded.

"I guess it would have been a slow and agonizing dead," he mused. "At least now I know what happened to Lestrange in my fifth year…"

Then Harry shrugged.

"But then, I wasn't the only one who was stupid enough to sniff on the time sand," he said and Percy's eyes widened.

"You're joking," he whispered. Harry grinned.

"Nope. _You,_ my dear brother-in-law look like a eighteen, maybe nineteen year old. Seems as if it was you who decided to take a deep breath and not I."

Percy nearly fainted at that exclamation and then forced himself to sit up and stumble to the bathroom to look in the mirror.

Harry bloody Potter was right. Obviously Percy had been the one who had taken a really deep breath.

"Sh –" Percy started just to stop mid-word. Audrey would have killed him if he uttered that word anywhere near his daughter. Then he remembered that his daughter was dead and instead of a swear-word, tears emerged.

He sniffed pitifully while trying to stifle his tears, but in the end, he just gave in. The headache he had didn't help his condition at all…

A warm hand clasped his shoulder.

"'S all right, Perce," a voice murmured. "I know exactly what you feel."

And Percy couldn't even object because Harry had lost his family as well.

"Maybe, if we change some things –"

"We can't!" Percy immediately interrupted. "We can't interfere, Harry! If we do, who knows what will happen to our future!"

With that Percy angrily tried to rub his tears away so that he could look at the other man.

"If we change anything, anything at all, our future might never happen!" he added finally when he gave up on his senseless task. "We can't even tell anyone that we _are_ from the future because if we do, we will be subjected to our law! We will end up in Azkaban!"

"So what? We will sit here – _here_ , where we might be able to change something – and do _nothing_?" Harry replied outraged.

" _Yes_!" Percy answered. "That's exactly what we will do. _Nothing_."

"Great," Harry replied sarcastically. "So you plan us to just sit by and watch everything happen again. We watch your uncles die, my parents, Fred, Ginny, Audrey, Molly, James –"

"Alright, alright! I get it!" Percy said bitterly. "But think, Potter! Damn it, _think_ about it! If we do something and help my uncles – who says that I'm marrying Audrey in the end? If you grow up with your parents – who says you will be close enough to Ginny in the end to marry her? Who says that it will all turn out all right if we change everything right now? For all we know we both could end up never been born just because we decided to meddle with time right now!"

That stopped the rant of the other.

"You're right," he said with a sigh. "It _is_ a risk."

"Yes, and a damn great one, Potter," Percy replied while rubbing his face, not caring that he was rubbing the rest of his tears everywhere on it. "Adding to that, that we don't have an identity and the risk of being found and thrown into Azkaban by the ministry – believe me, Potter, there's no way we could win in the end. And even if we do meddle and everything happens exactly the same as it should have – they won't be ours anymore. Ginny, Audrey, the kids… they will be the other Percy's and the other Harry's. Not ours. Ours are dead. Dead. Gone. Vanished –"

"I know," Harry said while they both emerged into tears again. "Believe me, I know."

For a moment they held onto each other, grieving, but then Harry freed himself from Percy's grip.

"So… what will we do now?" he asked the other man.

Percy shrugged.

"Search a lonely house in the muggle world and live out our lives there?" he suggested.

Harry just raised an eyebrow.

"We don't have any identifications for the muggle world," he reminded the other man. "We also don't have any muggle money."

"Well, we could go to Gringotts –"

"No identification in the magical world," Harry reminded him. "And we're definitely not able to do an inheritance test or something like that…"

"Shit," this time even the reminder that he shouldn't swear anywhere where his daughter could hear him wasn't strong enough to stop the swear-word from escaping. "So… you're basically telling me that we're stranded in a time we don't exist yet with no identity or way to live a legal life."

"Something like that," Harry said. "And now?"

"Now we're going out and search for a good place to kill ourselves. Seems the logical choice to do," Percy answered.

"And break my wedding promise to Ginny to live my life even if she should die before me? Not gonna happen, Perce," Harry replied.

"So… what do you want to do, then? Live in Knockturn Alley with the outlaws?" Percy asked coolly.

"If I have to," Harry replied shrugging. "But I thought more in the line of finding a way to obtain some forged documents and then start living in either the muggle or the magical world."

"Muggle," Percy said immediately. "We can't interfere with the happenings of the magical world – do you have forgotten?"

Harry rolled his eyes at that.

"Alright," he said. "Muggle."

Then he hesitated.

"Perce," he finally said slowly. "Just a question… what happens if you're branded as an Unspeakable… does it still… count… here, in the past, I mean?"

Percy stopped at that question and his eyes widened.

"How do you know I am an Unspeakable?" he asked distrustful.

Harry blinked at that in surprise.

"You are?" he asked wide-eyed.

"Sure," Percy said. "I was undercover until the end of the war but… didn't you ask me because you knew I was one?"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head and then wincing when his head protested the movement. "I didn't know you were. I just ask because… well… I am."

Percy looked at him as if he was stupid.

"You're Head Auror, Potter," he said. "You can't be Unspeakable and Head Auror!"

"But I am," Harry replied shrugging.

"No, you can't be," Percy said while trying to shake his head – just to stop when his headache worsened. "You wouldn't have time to be an Unspeakable and the Head Auror. All the research an Unspeakable does –"

"I'm a field agent," Harry corrected him. "I don't do research."

And that explained it all for Percy. Of course Harry had to be a field agent. They wouldn't have been able to end up in the time room if they weren't both registered as Unspeakables…

"We activated the time room," Percy groaned.

"Huh?"

"We're both Unspeakables. If we hadn't been we would have been able to enter the time room, but we wouldn't have been able to activate it because it is tuned to the mark of an Unspeakable. Since we are both branded as one, we could activate the room itself," he said. "We must have been standing in the room while activating it – that's the only explanation how we ended up that far in the past and with enough time sand in our lungs to de-age us. I must have been the one to activate the room – so I lost a few more years than you because I inhaled the sand first. And in the end, we simply left the ministry and came here. We're marked as Unspeakables. The first marks came up with the Department of Mysteries itself, so the marks have always been keyed in. No wonder we could come and leave without setting of any alarms!"

"So we wouldn't even be here if one of us hadn't been an Unspeakable?" Harry asked. "Bloody hell…"

They looked at each other.

Then Percy shrugged.

"At least we now know exactly how we ended up in the past, I guess," he sighed.

"Yep," Harry said and then crooked his head. "Now we just have to find out if the mark of the Unspeakables still counts in the past."

"Of course it counts!" Percy said with a snort. "It's not bond to the time we live in but to the Department itself. As long as the Department exists, we're part of it – if we don't stop working there or are fired, that is. But then we would also lose the mark, so the question is mute…"

Harry thought that over.

"So… since we didn't hand in our notices and weren't fired, we're basically still working there – even if we're back in time now?" he asked. "Now… should we be glad that we're at least registered with the Department of Mysteries or not?"

Percy frowned at that.

"Good question," he finally said sighing. "I guess it was good for us until now because we weren't seen as intruders, but then, still working there has its own troubles for us…" And he meant it.

The Department of Mysteries was built on different levels. Normally, only the immediate superior and the Department Heads knew the names of their subordinates. The superiors were the one to hire their subordinates and a contract ensured that the names of the Unspeakables didn't get out and that the Unspeakable himself wouldn't step out of line. If the subordinate advanced the former superior would be sworn to secrecy or in some cases even oblivated. Basically, the higher the Unspeakable was in rank, the more names he knew and the stricter the contract he was under, all while the less people knew his true name.

"Well… I guess we should be kind of glad. We've still got our jobs – after all, the moment we came here we were instantly added as Unspeakables by the Department itself. Even if there's no superior for us, we are still part of the Department," Harry concluded.

"Yes," Percy sighed. "Just that it will be odd that nobody in the Department _knows_ us – and that _will_ make them weary of us in time, Potter."

The payment, days off and everything else was done magically. The Department itself registered its Unspeakables and added them to the registration if a new one was hired or stopped the payment if the Unspeakable was fired, died or stopped working there.

Of course, there were exceptions to that rule. People who broke their contract or people who were the official contact to the ministry were mostly at least known by their code-name.

"Well, not all Unspeakables are known…" Harry said. "There are some, like me, who don't work there daily and are just called in for a crisis –"

"And those are still known by the Department Head," Percy said. "Even the other field operatives are known to at least the Department Head and his Deputy, if not also to their other superiors –"

"There's still an exception," Harry insisted. And he was right.

They were solely known as the 'Ghost-unit'. Some of them were known by their code-names but mostly the other Unspeakables just knew that the code-name existed but not if it was currently used by someone. There was a known list of thirty code-names solely reserved for that unit – a unit that normally consisted of only a handful of people, so a lot of code-names were known but unused.

The Ghosts – like the 'Ghost-Unit' was mostly called – were the best of the best and all of them were a combination field operatives and high-security researchers. They had access to every part of the Department and if they entered a project they were always listened to because they normally knew best.

"Tell me, Perce," Harry said hesitatingly. "Now that our names are unknown – does that make us part of the 'Ghost-Unit'?"

Percy paled at that thought.

"I hope not," he said. "I've no wish to be drawn by the Department Head and then send into danger because I should know how to diffuse it best."

And that was the gist of it. If there was something the field operatives or sometimes the researchers couldn't do or couldn't find, the 'Ghost-Unit' would step in. The Department Head would simply request someone of the 'Ghost-Unit' that fit for the job and the Department itself would provide those that would be up to the task. The moment the Department Head chose from the files provided, the Department would alert them and they would show up to get the information for their task. There was no refusal. If you were chosen, you went when you were part of the Ghosts.

"Well, if you are chosen, you should know how to diffuse it best," Harry said shrugging. "The Department wouldn't propose someone who isn't up to the job."

"Still," Percy said. "We couldn't do it. We would change too much if we'd step in!"

"Then I think that we should find out how we are now registered in the Department of Mysteries," Harry concluded. "At least we've got a plan, now."

Percy send him a disgruntled look.

"In my opinion we should start to pray right now that we aren't part of Ghost," he said. "Because if we are, we can say good-bye to our known future!"

Harry shrugged at that.

"I still think we should first try to find out if we are part of them before we panic," he said. "And, just in case, we should obtain some forged documents. If we are part of the unit, we can still hand in our notice and search for another occupation."

Percy sighed at that.

"Alright," he said, then pulled out his wand. "Who goes first?"

Harry shrugged and pulled back the sleeve of his right hand to expose his wrist.

"I go since you've already drawn your wand," he said.

So Percy softly touched a slightly lighter part of Harry's wrist with his wand and said clearly. "Identification."

The scroll that was produced from the spell fell into his left hand.

Percy opened it and groaned.

"Unspeakable

Field Operative – Ghost Unit," the first two lines said.

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"I guess we were promoted?" he asked half-amused, half-afraid.

"I'd say we got several promotions at once," Percy said dryly. "And I was looking forward to trouncing my superior in a years time, yesterday… now my former goal of promotion isn't even worth mentioning…"

Harry snickered at that with a hysterical edge in his voice.

"Should I test yours, just to be sure?" he asked and Percy freed his wrist immediately. Just a second later Harry held a scroll in his hands that showed the first two lines – and those were, to Percy's utter regret, the same like on Harry's scroll.

"Merlin," Percy groaned. "That's too much. I need a drink."

"It's not even twelve o'clock."

Percy shrugged.

"Time travel. No identity in the past. Part of Ghost. Not allowed to step in if we want to regain our future. Our fam… family – no, I _need_ a drink!" he said.

Harry sighed.

"If you put it like that," he said, then grabbed both scrolls and put them in Hermione's beaded bag. Percy was right. They needed a drink. Without one, the world wasn't bearable.

"But just one," he said sighing. "Who knows what we do if we're dead drunk _again_ …"

If they just would have listened to him…

sSsSsSsSsSs

 _Well, still inspired by 'Whiskey Time Travel' from Private Jenkins – even if I changed a lot already. xD_

 _I hope you liked it._

 _Ebenbild_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 _ **Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Placing:**_ _After the war - could be canon…_

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 _ **Drunken Deeds**_

sSs

When Harry woke up, he had a headache – again.

He groaned and sat up, just to find out that they weren't at the Leaky Cauldron anymore. Instead the room they were in looked oddly… muggle for a wizarding home.

Harry blinked and then looked around for his glasses. Maybe the TV would vanish if he was wearing them…

A man who sat next to the couch Harry was lying on, held out his glasses for him.

"Thanks," Harry mumbled and took them before putting them on and then looking around again. Nope, the TV didn't vanish now that he was wearing his glasses. But at the same time another thing showed up in his field of vision that he hadn't seen before: Though the window he could see a car parking in front of the garage.

"What? Where?"

"You and your friend are at my home," the man next to him said gruffly.

Harry looked at him in confusion before he remembered that he had managed to throw himself back in time with Percy of all people.

He grimaced slightly.

"Not my friend. My brother –"

Harry stopped himself before declaring Percy his brother-in-law. They were young again, so declaring Percy his brother-in-law wouldn't do any good. Unfortunately he had stopped too late for something else to be read from his words.

"Your brother then," the man said and Harry wanted to object but didn't dare to do it after basically declaring Percy his brother just a second before.

Well, he had always wished for a brother – even if he would have chosen someone else than Percy if he had the chance to choose…

"How -?"

"We brought you here," the man interrupted him while shaking his head before sighing. "Teenagers, truly. Not a scrap of logic in their brains. Why, by Merlin, did you think it prudent to not only leave Hogwarts but to drink yourself silly as well?"

At that, the man truly sounded agitated.

Harry blinked.

Why should they have left Hog-? Oh, right, teenagers. Seventeen and Eighteen years old at most. March.

… no wonder the other man thought that they came from Hogwarts.

"We're not students at Hogwarts," Harry corrected darkly. "And it's our decision if we drink. We're both adults, after all."

The man in front of him just snorted.

"Sure, lad. You're all grown up," the man said sarcastically. "Don't you dare to tell me you're one day older than sixteen, lad! If you squint a little, you still barely look sixteen and your brother is just a year older at most, so don't you dare to tell me that you two know anything about being responsible grown-ups or even being grown-ups in general!" The man huffed. "Considering that when my wife and I met you, you were dead drunk and it wasn't even noon I don't think that you two are responsible at all."

Harry just frowned at the man.

"It's none of your business," he finally replied sharply.

"Aye," the man said, nodding. "But my wife and I will bring you home to your parents and have a word with them so that they will punish you – it is _their_ responsibility, after all!"

"We don't have any parents," Harry replied, and this time he couldn't stop the bitterness showing in his voice. They didn't have any family anymore. Their wives, children and friends or other family were dead. Dead. Dead.

Something of his grieve must have made it on his face, because the elderly man's eyes softened.

"Death Eaters?" he asked, his gruff voice oddly understanding.

And Harry burst into tears like a two-year-old instead of the adult he normally felt like when the sharp pain of loss again penetrated his mind. Oh, how he wished for a bottle of firewhiskey right now!

xXxXxXx

Marius Black stared for a moment at the now clearly grieving teenager in front of him, before he reached out slowly and pulled the teen close to his chest.

"Sh," he whispered. "It's alright. It's alright."

It was in that moment that his wife choose to return to the living room and their guests. When she saw Marius with his arms full of a crying teen, he just arched an eyebrow at her before nodding towards the other sofa where the older of the two brothers was lying.

She nodded and went over to look at the other teen.

"He's still sleeping," she mouthed and he nodded while rubbing the younger teen's back and whispering soothing words in the teen's ears.

It took some time, but in the end the boy exhausted himself and fell back asleep. Marius waited for another minute or two before returning the boy on the couch and tucking him in. Then the turned and looked grievously at his wife.

"There're no parents to return them to. Death Eaters, from the reaction the boy had to them," he said.

"Both of their –"

"They're brothers," Marius explained, then he frowned. "I guess that also explains them drinking even if at least one of them is obviously not old enough to do so." At that he looked at the boy in front of them. The boy looked about fifteen, maybe sixteen in his eyes – of course, there was still the option of the boy being a very young looking seventeen-year-old, but he doubted it, especially now that he knew that the slightly older boy was the older brother. He looked to the red head and then back to the black haired boy. There weren't a lot of similarities in their facial features and colouring, but now that he knew to look for them he saw some – and not only their need of having to wear glasses.

"So – what do you think happened?" Marius' wife Susanna asked him and Marius shrugged.

"I guess that they were home-schooled, lost their parents in an attack and in the end ended up to go out to drink themselves silly. I guess it was good that they did, considering that neither of us would have been alive if they hadn't come and helped us – they were definitely trained well – but I also think that there might be no other family left for them to go to since there's obviously nobody looking for them…"

Susanna frowned at that.

"How can you tell?" She asked.

"If there would be someone looking for them, they would have been found already. Wizards have their ways – and if someone had cared about them then they wouldn't have been left alone to drink themselves silly after losing their parents. I could have understood it if it had been just juvenileness that made them act like this in the first place, but to know that they lost their parents obviously quite recently no responsible adult who cared for them would have left them alone for a day."

His wife nodded at that.

"So, what will we do?" She asked, now sounding determined.

"What do you mean, dear?"

"Well, they obviously saved us. Like you said: We wouldn't have survived those two Death Eaters if the children hadn't come and helped us out," she said. "Now we find out that they are orphans with nowhere to go – do you truly think that we could let them simply leave and be done with it? They need someone to look after them, especially if they decided to drown their sorrow in alcohol!"

His wife was right. But what could a muggle and a squib do? They weren't wizards, they had nothing to do with the wizarding world anymore even if Marius was still reading the _Daily Prophet_ to keep some eyes on his siblings at least. Marius was fifty-seven years old and his wife was only eight years younger! They were slowly getting old and far too old already to throw themselves into a war they knew nothing about just because of two teenager!

Marius groaned inwardly.

"What do you want to do?" he finally asked when he couldn't bear the determinate expression of his wife anymore.

"They need a home," she said certain.

"So what? You want to adopt them?" Marius joked and his wife's eyes darkened.

"Why not?" She said. "They don't look eighteen yet, so it would be perfectly legal."

"They're wizards, dear. I doubt that there is any evidence of them even being alive in the muggle world," Marius said. "My father had to forge my whole documentation so that I could go to muggle school when I didn't get a Hogwarts letter – and I can be happy that he did that. Mother was determined to kill me when she found out about my lack of magic!"

"Well, then we go to your brother," Susanna said shrugging. "Pollux is still writing you, after all, so he wouldn't mind to forge the papers for us. Maybe your sister Dorea would help as well."

"Charlus wouldn't be happy if he would find out about forging anything," Marius reminded her and she shrugged.

"There's still Pollux. He won't mind," she said and Marius sighed.

"We haven't truly seen each other in years, Sanna," he objected. "The last time at the end of the war against Grindelwald!"

"If I remember it right, that was the time he destroyed the wards of Numengard for you – I don't think there's much that he wouldn't do for you after that!" Susanna countered dryly. "Truly, you act as if your siblings started to ignore you like the rest of the family after they found out you didn't have any magic!"

Marius sighed again.

But then, his wife was right. Whatever you could say against the rest of his family – his father and his siblings still kept in contact with him even if, since the end of the war against Grindelwald, it was solely by letter.

"Alright," he said gruffly. "Where's that damn locket he gifted me for Christmas when that new Dark Lord made himself known? I'll call him here."

His wife smiled at that and then went up to their bedroom to fetch the locket. That reminded Marius of yesterday and their walk in the park. He grimaced. He should have started to take that damn locket everywhere he went years ago instead to letting it rot here at home. It had been careless and it would have cost his wife's and his own life if those two teens hadn't shown up when they did.

They had been going for a walk in Leicester Square Garden, not far away from Charing Cross Road and had been on the way back home when they had been attacked not far away from the Leaky Cauldron and the entrance in the wizarding world. It seemed that some Death Eaters saw them walking and decided to do some muggle baiting – or they had been some of the younger Blacks and recognized Marius, who knew? Whatever it was, Marius and Susanna found themselves confronted with two Death Eaters who had taken immense pleasure in using the Cruciatus Curse on them. They were about to go on to some even nastier curses Marius recognized from his studies as a child when the two teens had shown up and interfered.

In the end, the Death Eaters were forced to flee the scene and the intoxicated teens were left laughing at the sidewalk.

"Shey're idiots!" The younger teen slurred. "Even trying t'fight 'gainsht ush, riiight, Pershy?"

"Riiight!" The other one said, as sober as the younger one. "Ev'ryone knowsh y'shouldn't ev'n shink 'bout fightin' men wish a goal! … wif a goaaaal!"

"Shtupid Deash Eatersh!" The younger cried before turning to Marius. "D'ye know that I neeever eeever ev'n shought 'bout ashking Voldishwashy why he named them Deash Eatersh? Ishn't ash if shey're truly eating deash after all! Shey're ev'n afa… 'fraid o'it! Egshactly like Voldie-Smarties!"

Marius guessed that they could be happy that the boy was obviously too intoxicated to speak the Dark Lord's name properly. He had heard of the taboo on the name from his siblings after all and if the youth had succeeded to speak the name Marius was sure that they would have faced some other problems then some simple Death Eaters.

"It'sh for afraid management!" The other one explained the younger of the two. "Or whatev'r y'call shat! Y'know – like anger management buuut wif fear!"

At that the younger one giggled.

"Doeshn't sheem t' work then!" He declared. "Shey're shtill toootally 'fraid!"

"'Coursh not!" the older one said pompously. "Shey got-it all wrooong after all! Shey should have gone t' a mind-healer like ev'ry decent pershon!"

That had been the time his wife had decided to speak up.

"I don't think that the name matters just now," she said oddly calm for the situation they had been in just moments ago. "You can discuss them later. Now, you should go home and sleep before you end up passed-out in an alley somewhere!"

At that the two intoxicated teens just giggled.

"You are living somewhere close, aren't you?" Marius had asked suspiciously and the teens had stared at him as if he was insane – it was oddly disconcerting, considering that they both were death drunk.

"Nope!" The dark haired one of them declared amused in the end. "Not sh' shlightesht close from here!"

"Yep!" The other one said. "Not sh' shlightesht! Not sh' shlightesht!" And then they had started to giggle again.

And like that Marius and Susanna had ended up with two teens in their living room, sleeping on the couches. Marius had originally planned to bring them upstairs in the guest rooms, but the younger one had started to pass-out before they had reached the door to their home, so they had settled on putting them in the living room. At least, like that it was easier to watch them both at the same time…

Not that they had needed a lot of watching until now. The boys had been perfectly asleep for the last twenty-four hours.

In that moment, Susanna returned and held out the locket Marius had requested.

"Here it is," she said. "You're calling him now?"

Marius nodded.

"I think it's the best thing to do," he said. "The children need a home and as long as they're still unconsciousness they can't protest – and maybe they won't protest too much when they wake up and everything is already planned and ready to start up at a moments notice."

Susanna nodded at that and Marius took the locket.

"Pollux," he said and the locket heated.

A moment later, Pollux apparated into Marius' home, wand at the ready. He stopped and looked around blinking.

"Marius, what -?"

"We were attacked yesterday on the way home," Marius said before gesturing to the two sleeping boys on the sofas. "They rescued us and we brought them home since they were severely intoxicated.

Pollux blinked at that in confusion.

"Then why did you –"

"One of them woke up and told us that they were brothers and orphans. Death Eaters, from the reaction of him. Do you know anything about an attack or something like that?"

Pollux frowned.

"The Greys died two days back. The whole family, as far as everyone could tell. Their manor burned to the ground, so there's no evidence but since it had been done by Death Eaters and they aren't known to let anybody live, we considered them all dead," he said darkly.

"They had any children?" Marius asked and Pollux nodded.

"Four sons and four daughters," he said. "At least that's what Erich Grey always said. I don't think that anybody has ever seen any of his children. The Grey's were very particular in that. Something about the children needing to grow up safe before meeting anyone. They weren't even allowed to go to Hogwarts as far as I know! But well, they're the Greys. That family was always a little bit odd…"

"You think those two are Greys?" Marius said, gesturing to the two boys.

Pollux stepped closer first to the dark haired one, then to the red head. He pointed to the red head.

"That's definitely a Grey," he said. "The wife of Erich was a Prewett – and that boy particularly screams Prewett. The other boy, well, he looks more like a Black to me, but then, Erich's grandmother was a Black and Erich definitely inherited some of her looks. Combine that with the Potter blood of Erich's mother and I'm quite sure that the boy could be Erich's child."

"So they are Greys," Susanna said and Pollux nodded darkly.

"And we definitely have to hide them," he said. "If the Death Eaters find out that two of the boys survived they will return and try to kill those two children."

"Well, Sanna and I discussed to adopt them," Marius said. "They didn't seem to have anybody and we couldn't let them go back to wherever they lived until now when there's nobody to take care of them…"

Pollux thought that over.

"It would be a good idea," he said finally. "We should even go a step further and adopt them properly as Blacks. Like that they couldn't be found even if the Death Eaters would know that they are still alive."

Susanna frowned at that.

"I don't think that I can follow…"

"He's talking about a ritual, making them true Blacks at least for everyone searching for them," Marius said. "Basically: it makes us their true parents in the eyes of the whole wizarding world. They wouldn't be our adopted kids, but truly ours by birth."

Pollux nodded.

"And I would make sure that the muggle world documents show the same thing," he said.

Sanna smiled at that.

"Well, we always wanted children, didn't we, Marius?"

Marius just snorted.

"You two know that we have to consult the boys as well, don't you?" he said and Pollux shrugged.

"Don't worry about it. I'll do it."

xXxXxXx

When Percy woke up, his head was throbbing painfully.

A man in front of him held out his glasses to him and he took them and put them onto his nose.

"Good evening, Mr. Grey," the man greeted him.

"Huh?" Percy blinked and when the man held out a hangover potion, he took it gladly. He checked that it truly was what it appeared to be and then downed it in one go. He shuddered and then his memories returned.

Audrey, Molly and the rest of his family were dead.

Percy had no one. He was in the past. He was part of Ghost and he had no one except of Harry Bloody Potter!

And suddenly Percy regretted being sober in the first place.

"Alright, Mr. Grey," the man said. "Now that you can think clearly again, please listen to me for a moment."

Percy turned his head towards the man and saw that there was another man who looked kind of similar to the other one – both of them had those typical features simply screaming 'Black-family' at you – and a kind-looking red haired woman with a heart shaped face and forest green eyes.

On the other couch not far away from Percy slept Harry and Percy sighed in relive when he saw them. At least he hadn't lost the only person he knew as well while being dead drunk.

"I am Pollux Black," the man in front of him said in that moment. "And this is my brother Marius and his wife Susanna. I have to thank you and your brother for saving my brother's and his wife's life. We're in your and your brother's debt."

For a moment Percy was confused about the 'brother' thing since his brothers were dead, but then he remembered that Harry was his brother-in-law and who knew how he introduced himself and Harry. If he stopped at the wrong moment, calling Harry his brother would make sense…

And then the next part of Pollux sentence hit Percy.

… _thank you and your brother for saving my brother's and his wife's life…_

… _saving my brother's and his wife's life…_

Percy groaned inwardly.

What had they done?!

So much to not changing anything!

"Do you understand why it has to be done? Do you agree?" The man, Pollux Black said in that moment.

Percy closed his eyes.

He understood the consequences of their actions quite well.

"Yes," he said. "Yes, I understand and yes, I totally agree…"

If he had just listened…

sSsSsSsSsSs

 _Well, still inspired by 'Whiskey Time Travel' from Private Jenkins – even if I changed a lot already. xD_

 _I hope you liked it._

 _Ebenbild_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Placing:**_ _After the war - could be canon…_

xXxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxXxXxXx

sSsSsSsSs

 _ **Mistakes**_

sSs

"Percy! Do you know in how much trouble you got us with your answer?!" Percy sighed at the admonishment he heard in the other man's voice. But then, Harry Bloody Potter was right.

Percy had managed to pull them even deeper in trouble than they had already been.

"And I thought that I was the one doing stupid things all the time," Harry continued in that moment.

Percy snorted at that.

"I recall that I was stupid for quite some time, not believing when my parents told me about You-Know-Who's return," he said sighing.

Harry raised his eyebrow at that.

"You-Know-Who?" he repeated, disbelieve in his voice.

Percy gritted his teeth.

"We're in the past, Potter," he hissed. "Have you forgotten the taboo on his name?"

Harry's eyes widened at that, then he sighed.

"Yeah," he said tiredly. "I actually did. Good thing that I didn't speak about… _him_ … before now…"

"Him?" Percy repeated and Harry rolled his eyes.

"I refuse to call the dork lord 'You-Know-Who' or some such. Calling him that just gives him even more power," he replied. "Anyway, back to our discussion: Why by Merlin and Morgana did Perfect Percy _not_ listen to anything our hosts said before agreeing with them?!"

Percy winced.

"I was thinking about the trouble we got into thanks to us being drunk and _rescuing_ someone who should have died there and then!" He defended himself.

"Oh, fantastic!" Harry replied, suppressing the urge to shout, while throwing his hands up in the air. They were in Harry's future room and it was the middle of the night, but both of them feared to be overheard so they kept their voices down. "We already made a mistake and changed the future somewhat – why not make more by first not correcting them about us being Greys and then accepting their proposition to be adopted into the Black family! How by Merlin and Morgana will we get out of this without our secrets being found out now?!"

Percy winced. His brother-in-law clearly had learned to chew someone out in his years as Head Auror.

"What's done is done, Potter," Percy finally sighed. "It's not as if we can turn back time…"

Harry's eyes lit up while Percy's widened.

"No, Potter!" he hissed. "No! We've mucked around enough already – we won't go back and stop ourselves! There's no way for it to not go wrong if we try this!"

For a moment it looked as if Harry was about to argue, but in the end he just sighed and nodded tiredly.

"I guess you're right," he said sighing. "I don't even dare to think what could happen if we tried, considering my usual luck in those things…"

Percy nodded at that darkly.

"So… what do we do now?" Harry asked. "It's not as if we could fix it all by traveling in time…"

Percy frowned at that.

"I guess the first and foremost priority is hiding that we're from the future," he said sighing.

"And how do you plan to do this?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow. "With our luck it will show our parentage when we conduct the ritual that the Blacks plan to do…"

Percy frowned at that.

"So – what should we do?" He said. "It's not as if we could become Greys over night…"

Harry opened his mouth to speak up again when suddenly Percy's eyes lit up.

"Or maybe there is!" he said. This time it was Harry who frowned.

"How -?"

"The Grey's are dead," Percy said. "I remember that the family was killed just a short time ago. I looked up a lot of the victims shortly after…" He took a deep breath at that. "… shortly after Fred died."

Harry also felt a familiar stab of grieve when he heard that name, but fought through it anyway. There was no time for this now.

"So what -?"

"So their magic is still here on earth," Percy explained. "Normally the residue of the dead person's magic is used to activate their portrait, but there are some documents in the DoM that state that with a simple ritual you can contact the dead to find out their wishes. It hasn't been done in nearly a thousand years, but there are some cases where the family head of a dead family adopted the younger children of good friends as his sons and heirs even after he died…"

Harry looked at him skeptically.

"And you think that the past head would simply adopt us on a whim?"

Percy just shrugged.

"Better than nothing?" He said in a questioning voice. "Or do you want to tell your future parents that you're actually from the future?"

Harry opened his mouth at that – just to close it again in defeat. They would end up in Azkaban if they confessed that they time traveled.

"What do we have to do?"

Percy frowned at that and then closed his eyes while trying to remember what he read.

"Not a lot, actually," he said. "It's a ritual, but it's relatively simple…"

Harry frowned.

"Aren't rituals illegal?" he asked. Percy grimaced.

"Yes," he answered. "But it's that or going to Azkaban for time traveling more than a few hours…"

Harry's eyes darkened at that.

"Alright," he sighed. "What do we have to do?"

"Not too much," Percy said while scratching his head thoughtfully. "I think using a mixture of anise, caraway, lavender and bay leaves should be enough to get into contact with them."

Harry frowned.

"That doesn't sound like a potion," he said.

Percy just shrugged.

"It isn't," he said. "Not really, at least. We mix those things together, add our blood as a connection to us and then pray that we'll get in touch with the Greys."

Harry's frown deepened.

"That doesn't sound like it's a proper ritual," he pointed out and Percy blushed.

"Well – I might not truly remember everything," he finally confessed, beat red. "But it's the best thing we can do on such a short notice and the chance of finding the ingredients is very high since a lot of them are used for cooking. We've just tonight to try and hide who we truly are – so, will you help me or not?"

Harry blinked at that in surprise.

"That doesn't sound like the Percy I know," he pointed out in the end.

Percy frowned at him.

"If I had another way, I wouldn't do it," he said. "It's this or Azkaban!"

Harry rolled his eyes at that.

"Still, I would feel a little bit more secure if we had something of the Greys to add to your… potion," he finally said.

"But we don't," Percy hissed. "Now, will you help me or not?!"

Harry just rolled his eyes.

"I will," he said. "Merlin knows that I seem to rub off on all the persons I keep regular contact with. First I corrupted Hermione, then Neville and now you…"

Percy snorted.

"What about my brother?" he asked, feeling the pang of grieve when he thought about Ron.

Harry snorted at that.

"He was long since corrupted when I met him," Harry said. "In this case it definitely wasn't me!"

Percy suppressed a laugh at that.

"Whatever you say," he said before opening the door and creeping down to the kitchen. With Harry's help he collected the ingredients quite fast and only fifteen minutes later they were back in Harry's new bedroom.

"Alright, what now?" Harry asked.

Percy pulled out his wand – quite happy that it wasn't traced – and conjured up two silken bags.

"Put it in there, add your blood and then shake it. I'll do the same to the other one," he said.

"Just for your information: I refuse to take responsibility for whatever'll go wrong tonight," Harry told the older boy.

Percy rolled his eyes.

"The only thing magical in this mixture will be your blood. I don't think that there'll be a lot that can go wrong with this," he replied.

Harry looked at him skeptically but in the end did what Percy had said, watching fascinated when the white silk turned pink. Then some kind of fog emerged from the bag.

"Er… Perce…" Before Harry could finish his words, the fog suddenly struck him and instantly blackness took over his vision.

"Nothing can go wrong, my ass," was the last thing Harry thought before he fell unconsciousness.

But then, what else should have happened? He was Harry Bloody Potter after all – if something could go wrong, it normally did just for the principle of it!

xXxXxXx

When Harry woke up again, he found himself lying naked in a place he had been before: an oddly clean and white part of Kings Cross.

Harry blinked, then he sat up before thinking up some clothes.

Thankfully they turned up like the last time he had found himself in this place. He clothed himself without truly standing up, still far too confused as to why he was here again. Percy had said that there was no way for the mixture to turn deadly, after all – so why was he here?

Before Harry could think about it more, a train stopped, it's doors opened and a crowd of people emerged.

Harry could only stare at them in surprise.

Then the first man reached him and held out a hand for him to help him stand up. Harry stared at the man. He was an elderly gentleman with dark brown hair that reminded Harry of his own even if the colour was different and a mustache.

For a moment, Harry hesitated, but then he took the offered hand and the man helped him to stand up.

"I'm not quite sure if I should call you brave or stupid, young man," another gentleman said. He was very tall, with deep black hair and oddly shaped blood-red, gold and bronze coloured eyes.

"I'm going with stupid," a woman with dark brown hair said, a frown marring her handsome face. "Calling on the dead without specifying to whom he wants to talk to can only be called stupid!"

"Hey!" Harry spoke up at that. "That wasn't my idea! It was Percy's!"

"And yet you went along with it just fine," the gentleman who had helped him up the floor countered.

Harry felt himself blush at the reprimand.

"Yeah, well," he said, stumbling a little bit over his words. "It's not as if I had a choice. If we hadn't done that we might end up in Azkaban for our stupidity, after all!"

"And doing an illegal ritual without any proper research isn't stupidity?" the red-eyed man asked amused.

Harry scratched his head embarrassed.

"Well, yeah," he said. "But traveling in time dead drunk and then getting in trouble in this new time by being drunk again tops this one for sure," he replied half-amused himself.

At that, the red-eyed man laughed.

"I guess you might be right," he said. "Now tell me – why are you here?"

Harry blinked at that, then looked around for Percy.

"Well – actually I shouldn't be here alone, I mean Percy…"

"Is currently dealing with us at another place as well," the woman harrumphed.

Harry blinked at that surprised.

"Oh," he said. Then he remembered Dumbledore's parting words when he had been here the first time. "It's happening in my head – no way for Percy to be here…"

"Exactly," the man who had helped him up from the floor said. "Now – why did you call us here?"

Harry scratched his head again.

"Actually I only wanted to talk to the Head of the Greys," he explained nervously. "Percy and I were mistaken for his children and since we're time travelers and can't correct them we wanted to ask if he would be willing to add us to his family…" Harry didn't know if he should have told the… ghosts, or souls, or whatever… about him being from the future, but he thought that it would be the quickest way to explain their situation – and those people were dead, so there was no way for them to alarm the Ministry, was there?!

The man who had helped him to stand up raised an eyebrow at that.

"I am Eric Grey, the Head of the Grey family," he said before pointing to some of the until now silent bystanders to his left. "This is my family: my wife, my children, my brother, sister and their families as well."

"Oh…," Harry said, looking uncomfortable at the Grey family before his gaze turned to the other souls. "And who are you?" He asked them.

The woman with the brown hair stared at him coolly at that.

"We're other witches and wizards who died in England over the last month," she said icily. "Since you didn't aim your spell at anyone specific you called us all."

Harry blushed.

"Sorry," he mumbled, suddenly feeling like an unruly child again. But then, he and Percy had acted like children. Instead of thinking it through, they had simply done it without thinking about the consequences. On the other hand, both of them were still in shock and not even truly grieving. Harry was quite sure that if it happened a few months later, neither he nor Percy would have acted like they did.

The red-eyed man laughed when he heard Harry's apology.

"Don't worry, lad," he said. "I for my part didn't mind."

"And we're not all from England," another woman with golden hair spoke up from the background. "Some of us are from the French coast, some are from Ireland and some from Scotland or Wales. Your call reached quite far."

Harry blushed even more at that.

"Sorry," he repeated, feeling even more like a little child.

"No need to apologize, lad," Eric Grey said in that moment. "The most of us truly didn't mind."

Harry nodded at that before mentally pulling himself together.

"So, what will happen now?" he asked, trying to return to his adult mindset while pushing away any thought about his loss.

"Now you tell us exactly what you hoped to accomplish with your call," the red-eyed man said.

Harry straightened at that.

"Percy and I hoped to be accepted into the Grey family since, as far as we know, their line ended. We don't want to insert us in a family who still exists and we definitely don't want to steal someone else's rightful inheritance. It was our hope to be adopted and basically find a family even if said family is dead already. We hoped to hide our true ancestry like that, so that there would be no way to find out that we were once time travelers," he finally told the crowd. At his words, a lot of them bowed to him and then left by boarding a train that had entered into the station when Harry finished his words.

Harry looked at the leaving souls confused.

"What -?"

"They all have either an heir or still family left in the living world," Eric Grey said. "With your explanation what you wanted to accomplish you gave them the right to leave."

"Oh," Harry said before looking confused at the red-eyed man and the brown haired woman as well as a few others who stayed.

"We don't have any family or heirs left," the red-eyed man explained. "Even if you and your friend…"

"Brother-in-law," Harry corrected.

The red-eyed man inclined his head at that.

"Brother-in-law," he corrected himself. "Even if you and your brother-in-law planed to ask the Grey family, the fact that your call reached all of us gives us the right to stay and maybe decide that you might be an heir for our families. You might not have meant to call us, but since you did, it is our decision if we want our family names and powers to be lost or if we want them to continue through you."

Harry looked at the red-eyed man in surprise.

"Are you telling me that since you are here now, you are the ones who can decide to take us in – even if we only intended to ask the Greys?!" He asked surprised. The red-eyed man shrugged.

"Whatever you intended doesn't change that you called us all," the red-eyed man said. "So, yes, it's our decision."

Harry didn't truly know how to react to that. They had hoped to talk to the Grey family – not to be potentially adopted in a lot of unknown families!

"Oh," he settled on, in the end. "Alright. So – how do you plan to decide?"

He was surprised when Eric Grey smiled at him at that.

"We've been judging you and your actions since we came here," he said. "Since you voiced your plea everyone who fitted the criteria gained access to your mind and memories to judge you either worthy or unworthy of their family."

Harry stiffened at that. He definitely didn't like that the souls in front of him had had access to his mind in any way or form. It seemed that he would have to learn Occlumency – especially now that he was in the past and had to hide the truth even more. Oh, Harry had learned to hide his secrets from praying minds, but he had never gotten the hang on true Occlumency. It seemed that he would have to change that somehow.

"So – what's the verdict?" He finally asked, putting his thoughts on Occlumency aside for now.

The brown haired woman stared at him darkly, before sniffing.

"You're not someone I wanted to be heir of my house," she said. "I prefer it dead and gone to giving you claim to my house."

And with that, she turned and boarded another, newly arrived train. With her, a lot of other souls left as well – something Harry was very grateful for. He definitely didn't want to be the heir to who knows how many houses!

Eric Grey smiled at him, before stepping forward and kissing Harry's forehead.

"Make me proud, my son," he said smiling. Before leaving. His family, one by one, touched Harry's cheek or shoulder before they boarded the train as well.

Harry's eyes followed them, his heart suddenly aching for the family he had lost before he could be a part of them.

When he turned his eyes away from the train and the Greys, he saw that the platform was empty except of the red-eyed man.

The man was now standing directly in front of Harry.

The odd blood-red, gold and bronze eyes locked with Harry's green ones. Then the man's left hand reached out and grabbed Harry's hair in a painful grip.

The man's right hand struck forward, and instead of touching Harry's chest, entered it. Pain shot through Harry's body, agony that even a Cruciatus Curse couldn't inflict. Harry's green eyes widened in shock and pain and fear.

It felt as if he was ripped apart, as if the man's hand in him was twisting and destroying him in a way he couldn't explain.

Then the right hand of the man left him. It was bloody, but unlike normal blood, the red blood Harry could see was oozing silver fog.

Then the grip in his hair softened and the red-eyed man pulled him closer to kiss his forehead like Eric Grey had done as well. The kiss burned like fire.

"It's time to wake up," the red-eyed man whispered. "Youngest son of Eric Grey."

And with that he pushed Harry backwards, making him fall. But before Harry could even touch the floor, blackness ascended on him and he lost consciousness again. The last thing he felt was the fire tearing through him, twisting and turning his magic inside out.

xXxXxXx

When Harry woke up, he grimaced. Something felt… wrong.

"Harry, you alright?" He could hear Percy. He blinked and then sat up – just to find out that he was lying on the bed.

"What -?" He started to ask, but Percy answered him before he could even think about finishing the question.

"I levitated you onto the bed," he explained, distress in his eyes. "When I woke up you were screaming –"

Before he could continue, the door to Harry's bedroom opened and Marius and Susanna entered, both of them looking concerned.

"Are you two alright?" Susanna asked, while crossing the room, her hand automatically going to Harry's forehead.

"Yes, sorry," Harry said. "Nightmare." It was a lie, of course, but neither he nor Percy could tell their future parents that they had done an illegal ritual to truly change into Greys.

Susanna sighed at that, while Marius also crossed the room, his hand coming to rest onto Percy's shoulder. Percy still looked a little pale.

"You as well?" he asked the older boy. Percy shook his head.

"I heard him scream," he whispered. In his eyes, Harry could see the terror that Harry's pain had caused him. Harry was his last family – even if Harry and Percy had never truly liked each other – and Harry knew that neither of them would take well to loosing the other.

"It's alright," Marius said softly. "I fear that both of you will continue to have nightmare for quite some time."

Harry was quite sure that his future father was right, but he was also sure that the last part hadn't been a nightmare. Whatever the red-eyed man had done – it had changed something in Harry. Harry didn't think that he had lost his magic since he could still feel it beneath his skin, but whatever the man had done, it felt different to before.

"Come on," Marius said in that moment, guiding Percy out of the room. "Let's go back to bed. Your mother will look after your brother for now."

For a moment, Percy hesitated, but when Harry nodded at him, he did as he was told and left the room. Susanna meanwhile had sat down next to Harry, stroking his hair.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked him softly. Neither Harry nor Percy had told them their names, Marius and Susanna had asked, but Harry and Percy had refused. In the end, they had given in and told their future parents that they would tell them their old names the next day shortly before their adoption. Percy had also requested that their new parents would find new names for them – 'just in case' Percy had said and Pollux had nodded at that. 'Just in case the Death Eater knew the first names of Eric's children,' Pollux had thought it wise to change the children's first names as well. If neither Susanna nor Marius knew the names, similarities to their old names less likely happened.

"No," Harry answered to Susanna's question. "Not tonight."

She nodded at that.

"I'll stay until you're asleep," she said and maybe Harry would have felt annoyed by that, if it hadn't reminded him of himself when his own children had had a bad dream. Susanna might not be his mother by birth, but from tomorrow on she would be his mother in all ways possible without ever giving birth to him. And try as he might, he couldn't refuse his future mother something he had always done for his own children. So in the end, he just nodded and closed his eyes, letting the soft petting of his hair soothing him to sleep.

What had they done…?!

sSsSsSsSsSs

 _I hope you liked it._

 _Ebenbild_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Important:**_

 _ **Thank you for all your reviews!**_

 _Since I normally don't have time to answer all your fantastic reviews with a thank-you PM, I finally decided to write it down here. I absolutely adore the support I'm shown for my story and wanted to thank all my reviewers for every kind word they wrote to me. So: Thank you. Thank you so much!_

 _ **To all those who read this and share this day of joy and presents**_ _(I forgot the English word, something with born today or some such… xp xD)_ _ **:**_ _ **Happy birthday to you!**_

 _ **Placing:**_ _After the war - could be canon…_

xXxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxXxXxXx

sSsSsSsSs

 _ **Rituals**_

sSs

"Well," Pollux said, looking at the two children in front of him. "This won't be easy."

Harry and Percy looked at each other.

Susanna on the other hand was ringing her hands.

"What exactly will happen now?" She asked nervously.

Pollux sighed and looked at his brother Marius.

"We're doing a ritual," he explained. "A mostly forbidden ritual, that is."

Susanna frowned at that.

"Will we come into conflict with your law, if we do this?" She asked concerned.

For a moment, Pollux hesitated, then he shook his head.

"Not truly," he said. "This is more of a grey area in this case."

When Susanna frowned at that, he elaborated.

"Normally it's only allowed to be used to gain an heir," he said. "So adopting one boy is allowed by law. Since those two are brothers, it's not explicitly prohibited to adopt both, since it's in our law that orphaned siblings shouldn't be split, but it's also not truly allowed to do, since the law only speaks about getting an heir as exception. Nevertheless we would win if we would ever have to go to trial for this, since the rule about not splitting up families is more important than the other law. It's still a grey area, so I wouldn't advice it in any way or form if I were you."

"I thought we wouldn't advice it anyway," Marius said. "Didn't you want to make sure that it looks like they're my and my wife's children by birth?"

"I did," Pollux replied. "I also changed Susanna's status. She's now a squib-born of the Grey family. Like that nobody will ask about the children having any Grey blood. It also will make sure that both of them are still seen as children of the Grey family without endangering them unnecessarily."

At that, Harry looked at Percy concerned. He wasn't sure if it was such a good idea to advice that they were related to the Greys in any way or form considering that the Death Eaters went out of their way to kill off the whole family.

"I'm not sure if that's such a good idea," Marius said in that moment.

Pollux nodded.

"I'm quite sure that it isn't if you go around and tell it someone," he said. "So don't. I simply did it so that the older boy can go and claim the lordship the moment he turns twenty-one or when he's able to prove himself to his family magicks. I did it so that nobody will wonder when it comes out that he's Lord Grey."

Marius nodded at that.

"Alright," he said sighing. "Sounds logical. Now tell us: What do we have to do?"

Pollux sighed.

"Well," he said. "Since we want to keep their Grey-blood and just add the Black blood and Susanna's blood it won't be as easy as normally. Normally we just take some blood from both of you and then mix it into a potion and give it to the children to drink. Since we can't do that without destroying the Grey family, we will have to do a ritual."

Percy frowned at that.

"But rituals are prohibited by the Ministry," he said.

Pollux nodded.

"That they are, child," he said. "Nevertheless, we will do one. You will soon learn that a Black doesn't bow down to the Ministry and its laws and regulations."

Percy's frown deepened and Harry had to hide a snicker. He somehow had the feeling that Percy wouldn't be a happy camper in his new family…

"But the laws and regulations are there for a reason. They're here to keep us safe and –"

"I know, child," Pollux said amused. "But we are Blacks. We play the rules, we don't follow them."

Percy's eyes widened at that.

"Bu –"

"Don't worry, child, you will learn," Pollux said. "And I'm quite sure that the minute you'll have some true Black-blood running through your veins, you will understand."

Harry snickered at that.

"You bet he won't," he thought amused, thinking about Percy's past when he was even more a stickler to the rules than he was today. If prankster-blood in his veins didn't disabuse him from sticking to the rules, Harry was quite sure, Black blood wouldn't work as well.

On the other hand alcohol seemed to work quite well…

"Something to think about later," Harry concluded. At the moment there were other pressing matters to attend.

"The ritual I'm planning will be a little bit more complicated than just simply downing a potion," Pollux said. "I researched it and it should make sure that some of the Black looks and some features of your new mother will mix with your current looks all the while making sure that you retrain enough Grey-blood to not loose your status as heir and heir secundus."

Marius nodded.

"So what do we have to do exactly?" He asked.

At that, Pollux pulled out an old looking scroll and opened it slowly and cautiously. The scroll was brittle and looked to be centuries old.

"I found this one in the Black library," Pollux said. "It's from one of our earliest ancestors we have retrained knowledge from."

"What's in it?" Harry asked interested.

"It speaks about the ritual we will do today," Pollux said. "The ritual isn't known anymore, so it's definitely not regulated by the Ministry. So we will be safe from their interference."

Pollux slowly unfurled the scroll.

"Well," he said; his eyes slowly reading the scroll. "First we need a place in this house where I can draw on the floor."

Susanna frowned at that but in the end led Pollux to the third and last spare-room they had – the other two having been changed into Harry's and Percy's future rooms.

Pollux looked around the room and nodded.

"This should do," he said before pulling out a piece of chalk. "I will have to draw a lot of runes on the floor."

Then he looked up at Susanna.

"Would you mind looking for some things for me?" he asked. "The most things I brought with me, but there are still some I need like some fresh earth and an apple, some salt and some lavender and bay leaves."

Susanna nodded at that and left to fetch those things for him.

Meanwhile Pollux drew out a complex circle of runes and other symbols. To Harry's and Percy's surprise, Marius had started helping his brother. It seemed that Marius Black even as a squib knew runes.

Harry frowned and stepped next to Percy and whispered.

"Did you take runes?" He asked nearly soundlessly. Percy shook his head nearly unseen.

"Care and Arithmancy," he said. "You?"

"Divination and Care," Harry replied.

Percy frowned.

"Would you teach me Arithmancy if I asked?" Harry murmured.

Percy hesitated, but in the end nodded once.

"But only if you truly try to learn," he whispered back.

Harry nodded at that.

"What are you whispering, you two?" Susanna asked in that moment, coming up behind them.

Harry looked at Percy.

Percy looked at Harry.

"We never learned runes," Harry finally said.

That stopped Pollux mid-draw.

He looked up to the adults-turned-teenagers.

"The Greys didn't teach you runes?" He asked frowning, before he shook his head after a moment contemplation. "No, they wouldn't," he said. "I don't think that Erich Grey knew anything but the basics and his family magicks. I guess we will have to teach you Arithmancy, Runes, the Dark Arts, Healing and maybe even some potions…"

Harry wanted to groan at the prospect of having to learn not only one subject but who knows how many.

"Well, don't worry," Pollux said. "If I come every day we should get down at least the basics before the end of the school year. You'll both take your OWL's at the Ministry and then we'll talk about either sending you to Hogwarts next year or continuing to home-school you."

Harry and Percy exchanged a dismayed look at that.

Neither of them wanted to be home-schooled by a family known for their knowledge of the Dark Arts – but neither wanted to return to Hogwarts for the next two years as well. They would utterly destroy the time-line if they entered Hogwarts as two new students!

Pollux and Marius meanwhile had finished their runic circles and now stood up and dusted themselves off.

Then Pollux pulled out different kind of things from his pockets.

There were things Harry didn't even recognize, there were things Harry had seen used in different kind of potions in the past and there were some potions as well.

Pollux studied his scroll before placing those different ingredients on different runes in the runic circles on the floor.

"Alright, Susanna," he said in the end. "Cut the apple in seven pieces and give them to me together with the lavender and the bay leaves. Then take the salt and put it on the outer circle so that its all around the smaller circles."

Susanna did as she was told.

Then Pollux pulled out two vials of potions.

"Marius, Susanna," he said. "Each of you add about three drops of blood in each vial." After Marius and Susanna had done it, Pollux gestured to Harry and Percy.

"Alright, children," he said. "Take those potions with you and add three drops of your own blood into the one you're holding. Both of you stand in one of the circles with the Eihwaz runes in their middle." When he saw their confused faces, he pointed at the rune and Harry and Percy searched the runic circles for them. They each found one and took their place, before using their wands to cut their finger and adding the blood to the vials.

Pollux meanwhile had instructed Marius and Susanna where they had to stand and had then taken his place as well.

"Alright," he said. "From now on there will be a lot of chanting and speaking. The moment I'm done chanting the first part, you won't be able to leave the runic circle you're in right now. When I'm done, children, take the potion you're holding. After that, in the other two empty circles two of our ancestors will appear – one of each magical family that will continue to exist in your veins at the end of the ritual. They will each question us all about our intentions, all the while ensuring that we're telling the truth by reading our minds. After that I'll chant again and if they accept you they will give you your new name."

Harry frowned at that.

"What about our current names?" He asked. Not that they had told their current names to the three Blacks, but he needed to know anyway.

"Usually your new first name is based one your old one while at the same time fitting with the naming tradition of your new family," Pollux explained. "Your second name is based on your character or new status in our family. Like your first name it most likely should be a star-based name since they are traditional in the Black family."

"So our old names will be gone?" Percy asked frowning.

"I fear they will. There's nothing we can do to change that without sending out flags that something's different with you. Like your father's name, your old names will be gone. You won't be 'sons of Erich Grey' anymore, you will be 'sons of Marius Black'. The ritual will name you such and it will ensure that nobody else will ever connect you with your old identity ever again," Pollux replied. "Now, don't interrupt me. This will take some time."

And with that, he began.

The chant he spoke was in old Latin. Harry didn't understand the words, but he noticed the repeat.

One time.

Two times.

Three.

The moment Pollux ended his chant for the third time, the circles lit up in golden light and suddenly two silvery ghosts appeared on the empty runic circles.

One of them looked like an ancient man with long grey beard and dark eyes. If he hadn't have a grave look on his features, he might have looked a little bit like Dumbledore.

It was this ghost who spoke first.

"Why do you call us, descendants of mine?" He asked.

"We called for you to accept these two children as part of our family," Pollux replied, gesturing to Harry and Percy.

Harry looked at Percy anxiously.

Percy stared at the ghost fearfully.

And then Harry could feel someone riffling through his mind – again.

"If we accept them, what will you do?" The old ghost asked.

"We will cherish them and name them our sons," Marius replied steadily.

"Not caring what they've been through?" The old man asked.

"They may have their past," Susanna replied. "But if you make it happen, their future will be with us."

The old man frowned.

"And if we accept you, what will you do?" And this time he clearly was addressing Harry and Percy.

Harry gulped but returned the gaze of the ghost while trying to ignore the feeling as if someone was looking into his mind. He was sure that it was nobody of the living and he hoped that the dead would keep their secret.

"I don't betray family, if that's what you fear," he said. "I have my morals, I can't and won't break them; but I also will stand by those people whom I call family until the bitter end if I have to."

"I went against my family once, against my better judgment. I won't do so again if they're not what I perceive as evil. I can't follow evil, but I won't go against family just because they look at things in a different way than I do," Percy said strongly.

The ghost inclined his head and vanished.

"What will you do to cherish my children?" Another ghost asked and Harry was surprised to recognize Erich Grey.

"We will look after them as if they were born to us," Susanna promised. "I won't try to make them forget, but I will try to be a second mother to them if they have me."

"We will sit by them if they have nightmares, we will clothe them, feed them, teach them. We will look after them as our own if they will have us as their second parents," Marius said.

"We will recognize them as family and shield them from the world and those that want to harm them if they will have us as their second family," Pollux replied.

"Are you willing to not only bear your burden as my heirs and children but as theirs as well?" Erich Grey asked Harry and Percy.

"We are," Harry and Percy answered after a second of contemplation. "We will do everything in our power to be you worthy heirs while being worthy heirs to them as well."

At that, Erich Grey inclined his head and vanished as well.

Pollux opened the mouth to continue with the ritual, when another ghost suddenly appeared.

The ghost, unlike the other two, wasn't silvery. He was still see-through, but his hair was black as the night, his eyes were oddly shaped, blood-red, gold and bronze coloured.

Like Erich Grey he appeared in the runic circle, but instead of staying there like the other ghost, he stepped out of it and towards Harry.

Harry's eyes widened when he saw the ghost.

It was the ghost he had met on the ghostly King's Cross last night.

The ghost reached Harry's circle and before Harry could step backwards, the ghost's hand reached out and grabbed his chin.

The ghost's hand felt oddly solid.

The other, as solid hand of the ghost found Harry's hair.

"Is this truly what you chose, youngest son of Erich Grey?" the ghost asked and Harry could see not only Percy but also the three adults shiver at those words. "Is this your choice, child of Erich Grey?"

Harry gulped, while actively remembering the pain the man had caused him last night. Something had changed since then and Harry still had had no time to look into the change.

Harry closed his eyes, taking a deep breath while trying to reign in his fear.

"It is my choice," he said with as much conviction as he could muster.

The blood-red eyes pierced his soul.

"So you won't stop it whatever the consequences will be?" The man asked, his blood-red eyes freezing Harry on the spot.

"I won't," Harry answered strongly, his heart beating rapidly in his chest.

The man smiled, revealing sharp fangs – the teeth of a predator, not of a vampire.

The hand in Harry's hair patted his cheek.

"Oh, child," the man said. "You beautiful child."

His hand caressed Harry's temple and hair.

"So sweet, so strong, so utterly perfect," the man whispered. "And yet you're shadowed by the child you now call your brother. You should shine on your own, youngest son of Erich Grey."

The moment the man said the words, flames erupted from the rune beneath Harry's feet. Harry screamed when a burning mouth touched his forehead in a gentle kiss.

Then the man with the blood-red eyes vanished like the other two ghosts.

Harry fell to his knees.

He saw the fear in his future parents' and uncle's eyes. He saw the fear in Percy's eyes and the flames burned around him, burned him alive.

And yet, nobody could help him as long as the ritual was still in process.

He could hear Pollux muttering the last words hastily, trying to end the ritual before Harry burned to death.

Then the circle lit up in golden light again.

The next Harry knew was the golden light hitting the flames and combining with them. Golden flames burned him, cursed through his veins and burned his eyes.

Like in a dream, he heard the voice of the first ghost – the old man – speak to him and everyone else in the room.

"Welcome to the family, heir of Marius and Susanna Black, Perseus Marius Black," the ghost's voice said. "We will look forward to your deeds for the family."

For a moment, Harry's vision blackened, then he heard the voice of the old ghost again.

"Welcome to the family, heir secundus of Marius and Susanna Black, Eridanus Iudex Azccabanis Black," the old man's voice said. "Youngest son of Erich Grey."

The flames surrounding Harry turned blood-red, golden and bronze.

Percy screamed Harry's name.

Marius and Susanna ran forwards towards Harry the moment the magic of the ritual vanished.

Pollux pulled out his wand to put out the flames.

A woman in Harry's head pleaded with a monster for the life of her son.

And blood-red eyes traced the delicate features of an adult-turned child, a smile on the thin lips.

" _Youngest son of Erich Grey_ ," the voice of the Black ancestor whispered, his voice laced with the voice of a man with blood-red eyes.

Harry lost consciousness.

sSsSsSsSsSs

 _I hope you liked it._

 _Ebenbild_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Placing:**_ _After the war - could be canon…_

xXxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxXxXxXx

sSsSsSsSs

 _ **Consequences**_

sSs

"What exactly happened in there?" Susanna stared at Pollux, fury in her eyes. "You told me that the ritual would be safe for all of us!"

Pollux meanwhile was leafing through different kind of scrolls – the scrolls he had brought with him and that held answers to the ritual.

"Susanna, calm down," Marius said. He was sitting next to an unconscious newly named Eridanus Black. "Whatever happened, it hasn't hurt him too much. A little bit of rest and time and the burns will be gone without any evidence that they have ever been there in the first place."

"Still, this shouldn't have happened!" Percy, now named Perseus, objected.

"It shouldn't have, Perseus," Pollux said sighing. "But that doesn't mean that there's no reason for it to happen."

Perseus grimaced at his new name.

"What do you mean, Pollux?" Susanna asked frowning.

"I haven't found an explanation, yet," Pollux said. "But there's always a reason for things like that to happen in rituals like the one we just did."

"But what exactly _did_ happen?" Susanna asked, her hand carding through her younger son's hair.

"I'm not quite sure," Pollux replied. "But the spectre that visited us without invitation was somehow already bound to Eridanus. It wouldn't have been able to enter the ritual circle if it hadn't had a connection to one of us already. Since it went for Eridanus it's a good guess that the connection was to him."

"But how?" Marius frowned. "Eridanus shouldn't have any connection to a ghost –"

"I'm not sure that that was a ghost," Pollux replied. "A spectre, yes, but a ghost… well, it didn't have the usual appearance of a ghost. It wasn't silvery but coloured. It obviously could touch things and it wasn't stopped by the runic parts that stopped the ghosts from leaving the circles they were in."

"But if it wasn't a ghost, then what was it?" Perseus asked darkly. "And what did that thing to… my brother?"

Pollux sighed.

"That's what I try to find out," he said, his fingers still travelling over the scrolls writing, searching the answer furiously.

After that, silence reigned, only interrupted by Pollux changing scrolls.

Marius was still sitting next to his younger son, his hand carding through the child's hair. Susanna meanwhile had wandered next to Perseus and was now rubbing the nervous boy's back soothingly.

"Aha!" It was that noise that stopped the silence in the room about half an hour later. The other three conscious people looked, expectation in their eyes, at the forth.

"What did you find?" Marius was the first to ask his brother.

Pollux who had been still looking at the scrolls, looked up at his brother.

"A possible answer," he replied.

"And what does this possible answer entail?" Marius asked concerned.

Pollux frowned for a moment, scratching his head a little bit nervously.

"Nothing too bad," he said. "Nothing too bad."

"Pollux!" Marius' used a definitely scolding tone of voice when he voiced the other man's name this time around.

Pollux looked at Marius an innocent expression on his face.

"Don't worry too much, Mar," he said softly smiling. "I should have thought of it from the start."

"You should have thought of what?" Marius frowned.

"The boy's name," Pollux replied.

Susanna frowned as well at that.

"What's wrong with Eridanus' name?" She asked.

"Nothing's wrong with 'Eridanus'," Pollux replied. "Eridanus is a nice, true name of the Black family – even if it hasn't been chosen in centuries."

"So what -?" Susanna asked confused.

"It's the rest of his name that should have told me that there's something more going on than I thought," Pollux replied.

Perseus, Susanna and Marius frowned.

"I don't understand," Perseus said.

It was then that understanding showed in Marius' eyes.

"Iudex Azccabanis," he repeated surprised. "Neither of it is a Black name."

"Exactly," Pollux replied. "Neither of it has a star context."

"But why does it matter?" Susanna asked confused.

"Because he was adopted by us. Our ancestor should have chosen a Black name for him. To not chose a fully Black name just means one thing: The spectre changed it," Pollux looked at the others seriously.

"But why should the spectre -?" Perseus started to ask, but was interrupted by Marius.

"There's only one reason: Your brother has been born with the right to another family name. Basically, for whatever reason, he's heir to another family you're not heir to. Meaning that he's the heir primus instead of secundus."

"But how's that possible?" Perseus asked frowning.

The answer was a sigh from Pollux.

"I guess that's our fault," he said. "Normally it isn't, but we basically opened a portal to the afterlife. This enabled the spectre to contact us and chose Eridanus as his heir."

Perseus frowned.

"I don't understand," he said.

"Basically, I guess that the spectre was not yet part of the afterlife," Pollux replied. "He was coloured and the scrolls tell us that that means that he refused to move on to the afterlife while at the same time refused to stay on earth as a ghost."

"So what is he?" Susanna asked frowning.

"Basically he's a dead soul who stayed into the pathway between death and life, waiting for a time when he finally can fulfill whatever he still wishes to do," Pollux replied. "I guess the spectre was waiting for someone he could name an heir and when we did the ritual he saw his chance and decided to give his inheritance to Eridanus."

"But what about the fire and –"

"Whatever Eridanus' inheritance entails, it seems that he was still lacking some things to inherit. The flames, I guess, was the visible expression of the magic he was given by the spectre when he was made the spectre's heir."

Marius and Susanna exchanged a concerned glance.

"What about the burns?" Marius asked. "They shouldn't exist if it was solely his magic changing, should they?"

Pollux frowned at that.

"Normally they shouldn't," he said darkly. "But they do. I can't explain how, but I will look into them. Hopefully I'll find an answer."

They all looked at the sleeping Eridanus Black, once known as Harry Potter. The boy's eyes were closed, but half of his face was red with burns, the burned flesh looking gruesome, destroying his youthful forehead and right side of his face.

The lightning bold like scar on his forehead had vanished totally beneath the burns.

"Don't worry," Pollux said. "It should heal without leaving any scaring at all."

Susanna frowned at that.

"That doesn't reassure me at all," she said. "That ghost or whatever it was still hurt my son and now you tell me that it might've been our fault that it happened in the first place!"

At that, Pollux shook his head.

"It definitely wasn't our fault," he said. "We might have enabled the spectre to act, but in the end, nothing would have happened if Eridanus wouldn't have had a connection to that spectre already. That he already had the connection just means that he would have suffered through that eventually sometime in the future."

At that, Susanna and Perseus both frowned in confusion.

"But why?" Perseus asked. "I mean: That spectre – shouldn't it have been unable to reach him without the ritual?"

Pollux sighed.

"Yes and no," he said. "That the spectre was able to enter the ritual circle means that your brother was already its heir in some way. I guess that the spirit's inheritance was bound to some specific conditions, conditions that your brother fulfilled since birth. I also guess that him inheriting has something to do with his position in the family –"

"Why?" Perseus asked confused.

"Because the spirit and our ancestor called him 'youngest son of Erich Grey'," Marius answered before Pollux could do more than open his mouth. "Your original father's name should have been lost after the ritual, yet your brother was still called his son even after Eridanus was already accepted as our son and heir secundus. This wouldn't have happened if his position in the spirit's family would have nothing to do with the Grey family. Am I right, Pollux?"

The other Black brother nodded.

"There are some exceptions to that rule, but all in all we will have to assume that his position as head of said unnamed family is somehow bound to the fact that he's Erich Grey's youngest son."

"But… what family are we talking about?" Perseus asked confused. "I mean, is there a way to find out what family we're talking about and the reasons why Ha… Eridanus magic needed to be altered so that he fit the criteria to inherit that family?"

The two older Blacks exchanged a dark look at that question.

"There aren't a lot of families that require a special kind of magic for the heirs to inherit the headship of said family," Pollux said.

"A lot of them are highly specialized in their kind of magic," Marius added darkly.

"And even more of them are regarded as the darkest families throughout history," Pollux added. "Families like the Slytherins… the LeFays… the Hohenheims… and Ekrizdis."

Marius snorted at that.

"We Blacks might have a dark reputation and are seen as a thorn in their sides by many of the light families, but we're nothing compared to those families – nothing at all," he said nearly silently. "Whatever family Eridanus has been part of since birth, the moment he takes up his lordship, he will change the whole wizarding world just by existing."

Perseus wondered if it was too late to commit a murder and then suicide to keep the timeline running like it should have. Regretfully, he guessed that his new parents would find a way to stop his plans before he could make them true.

"Our future is damned," he thought, inwardly groaning. "Absolutely damned."

Regretfully he doubted that Harry was at fault this time around. He clearly remembered the younger man telling him that it was on his head if something went wrong with the half-baked ritual he insisted on doing yesterday night – and Percy was no idiot: He was quite sure that it had been the ritual last night that somehow bound his brother-in-law to one of the darkest families in the history of magic.

"Let's just hope that it isn't Slytherin," Perseus thought. "Harry will kill me if I made him the cousin of You-Know-Who…"

And worse than Slytherin wasn't possible, was it?

xXxXxXx

Harry meanwhile looked around the room he found himself in when he opened the eyes in confusion. The room was dark, only lit with a few green burning candles and decorated in black, dark greens and dark browns.

The whole room looked like a study, but without any windows or any kind of other lights but the green light of the candles. There was a desk in front of Harry and some chairs. At his left side was a wall full of bookshelves, at his right a wall of closed, heavy, dark green curtains.

Harry had never seen the room before in his whole life.

"What… where am I?" He whispered to himself.

"You're in my lair, youngest son of Erich Grey," a voice answered his question. Harry knew that voice. It was the same soothing tone of voice he had heard twice before now.

Harry turned around, his eyes wide – just to meet the red, bronze, golden eyes of the man who had hurt him two times already. He stumbled backwards.

The man held up his hands.

"Don't worry, youngest son of Erich Grey," he said. "I'm not here to hurt you again."

Harry's eyes narrowed at that.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" He asked darkly.

The other man raised an eyebrow in inquiry and Harry elaborated.

"Why do you call me 'youngest son of Erich Grey'?"

The other man smirked at that.

"Because that's what you are," the man replied half amused.

Harry pressed his lips together.

"Solely because Erich Grey decided to adopt us," he said. "I do have a name, you know."

The spectre grinned at that.

"I am aware of that, youngest son of Erich Grey," he said amused. "But I won't call you by it until you show me that you are worthy of your name."

Harry started at the other man.

"Worthy of my name?" He repeated confused.

The man bared his teeth in a resemblance of a smile.

"Don't worry," he said. "I know that you will be worthy of it sometime in the future. You have the potential to be, or I wouldn't have chosen you."

"Chosen me for what?" Harry asked cautiously.

The answer was another grin that looked more like a baring of teeth.

"I chose you as my heir," the man said, stepping near Harry and stroking Harry's cheek with cold fingers before Harry could flee from his touch. "You are my heir. You alone. I saw your memories and I couldn't stand to see a light like yours being suppressed by a man you suddenly call your big brother. You should shine on your own – and you will shine on your own the moment you take up my inheritance."

Harry frowned at that.

"What inheritance are you talking about?" He asked confused. "Who are you?"

Red eyes lightened up with unearthly light at that.

"The moment you are ready to be my heir, I will tell you my name, youngest son of Erich Grey," the spectre replied.

Harry frowned at that.

"So… what should I call you until then?" Harry asked. "I somehow get the feeling that this won't be the last time I see you, even if I'd wish that it was – and I need something to call you if I interact with you more often…"

The spirit grinned his teeth baring like grin again.

"I guess you are right, youngest son of Erich Grey," he said amused. "You might need to call me something sometime in the future…"

He stopped speaking and Harry raised an eyebrow.

The man shrugged.

"Pater should do for now," he said. "It's at least the correct word for you to describe me."

Harry frowned at that. That word sounded somehow familiar, but he couldn't for the life of him think where he had heard it before…

The spirit grinned, as if he was part of Harry's confused thought process.

"Don't worry. The meaning might come to you at a later time," he said. "Until then I will do everything to make sure that you will become the heir I need you to be. Don't try to argue. Today we will begin your training."

sSsSsSsSsSs

 _I hope you liked it._

 _Ebenbild_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Placing:**_ _After the war - could be canon…_

xXxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxXxXxXx

sSsSsSsSs

 _ **First Training**_

sSs

Harry was staring at the wall.

It was a nice wall, all green and… wall-y.

 _Oh, look!_ There even was a little hole in the wallpaper, showing the off-white colour of the wall beneath.

 _Oh, look!_ There was a darker patch on the wallpaper, just at the end of Harry's vision.

Harry started to count the minuscule, slightly darker dots that sprinkled the wallpaper.

 _One hundred fifty._

 _Two hundred._

 _Four hundred thirty-five._

 _Six hundred._

When he reached seven hundred he was totally bored out of his mind – and yet still standing there, in the corner of the room, staring at the wall.

How long had it been since he started it?

How long would it be until he could stop?

In the end, Harry couldn't keep staring at the wall. He was totally sick and tired of it.

"How long do I have to keep standing here?" Harry finally whined, feeling like a toddler instead of the grown man he was.

The answer was a huff from Pater.

"Until you've learned what you should be learning," he said.

"But what am I learning that requires to stare at the wall?" Harry whined, but didn't turn around or change where his eyes were looking. He might be feeling like a toddler in time-out, but he was not that far gone to stray from his 'punishment' to turn around. That would just mean to have to start all over again later. Harry knew how parents punished children. He had done it often enough after all. The sharp pain in his heart at that thought took his breath away for a moment, but he worked through it and kept staring at the wall. He might be punished like a toddler, but at least he knew what not to do if he wanted to get out of the punishment without extra time, or at least that's what he thought...

"Patience," Pater replied dryly as an answer to his question. "Now silence. You're starting over."

Harry's eyes widened and this time he turned around to stare at his instructor.

"But why?" He asked horrified. "I didn't look away or some such!"

"You interrupted your learning by talking," Pater replied. "You're starting over."

"But -!"

"No 'buts'," the red-eyed man said. "The moment you have learned to keep silent and staying focused on one thing, and one thing alone, you will be able to leave the corner and return to the living world."

"Wait!" Harry said with dread in his voice. "You want me to learn to focus on a wall?"

The red-eyed man sighed.

"You have to learn to blend out everything around you. You have to learn to calm your thoughts until there's nothing there but the calmness itself. Until then you will stay in this corner and stare at the wall – do you understand?"

"But I'm not a child! You can't treat me like one!" Harry objected. "I'm an adult – a trained auror! I'm trained to observe things – and being forced to look at a wall doesn't help at all when I'm used to observe anything and everything around me!"

"Hmm," Pater said at that, while looking at him in contemplation. "I guess you might be right, youngest son of Erich Grey," he finally relented. "I guess that means that I should have higher expectations of you."

He nodded.

"Alright – you keep standing there until you're able to sense everything around you even without seeing it."

"What?" Harry cried. "That wasn't what I meant! I mean… I can't keep standing here! What about the Blacks and Percy? They will be worried if I don't wake up soon!"

Pater just waved it off unconcerned.

"Your body is currently dealing with the change in its magic I initiated so that I could add you to my family. You wouldn't wake for at least the next twenty-four to thirty-five hours anyway," he replied. "That's plenty of time to at least teach you the basics for now without you being missed at all."

"The basics of what?" Harry asked irritated.

"The basics to survive, idiot boy," Pater replied. "And now – back to your learning!"

Harry stared at the man incredulously, but turned around to the wall anyway.

"I wouldn't call this learning," he muttered to himself. "Torture maybe, but not learning!"

"Silence," the red-eyed man admonished him. "Or I will have to start you all over again."

Harry rolled his eyes but kept his mouth shut. He had no intention of having to start over _again_.

"Sadistic bastard," he thought to himself.

"No thoughts as well," Pater added unimpressed as if he had heard what Harry had been thinking. Considering that they were currently within Harry's mind, Harry guessed that that possibility was more likely reality.

He grimaced at that thought and then hurriedly returned to his task.

It was a nice wall.

A green wall without any patterns on it.

It was a really, really nice wall, all green and… wall-y.

 _Oh, look!_ There even was a little hole in the wallpaper, showing the off-white colour of the wall beneath.

 _Stop!_ – He had seen that one before. He had looked at that spot just minutes ago, hadn't he?

His attention drifted further.

 _Oh, look!_ There was a darker patch on the wallpaper, just at the end of Harry's vision. No, that one wasn't new as well. Harry was quite sure that he had seen that spot before as well…

 _So, on with it._ He went on to the next thing he could do.

Harry started to count the minuscule, slightly darker dots that sprinkled the wallpaper.

 _One hundred fifty._

 _Two hundred._

 _Four hundred thirty-five._

 _Six hundred._

 _Seven hundred ninety-nine._

 _Eight hundred._

 _Eight hundred eighty-seven._

 _Nine hundred…_

Harry didn't know how long he was staring at the wall, he just knew that in the end he was so bored out of his mind that his brain simply decided to shut off. A pleasant haze started to fill his thoughts until he drifted in a state between wakefulness and sleep.

Harry didn't know how long he drifted in that state, never able to do the final step and fall asleep, never able to return to the dullness of being awake. It might have been hours he drifted, or years or moments. He had lost all thoughts of time and place and whys and hows. He was only drifting.

It was then that other things suddenly seemed to pop up all around him. One moment he was drifting in a haze between wakefulness and sleep, the next he felt things around him he had never felt before. There was a dull buzzing sound that surrounded him and everything around him. There was a warm, friendly hazy construct of nothingness right by his right side. There was another warm construct, filled with black haze and the feelings of soft fur and grey, a lot of grey – not that Harry could explain what the grey consisted off, he just couldn't explain the feeling with any other word but 'grey' – right next to the warm nothingness.

Then his odd senses stretched further.

He could taste the lingering feeling of blood and black and haze just behind the solid feeling of stone. He could feel two more warm and friendly black hazy constructs beneath him – one of them free and wild, the other one oddly empty – and beneath the feeling of a barrier tasting of wood.

Then his senses stretched further until he could feel the buzzing surrounding him and everything around him directly. It was shielding him and the other hazy constructs. It was a warm buzzing, build out of feelings of good and protect and shield and family.

Suddenly, something warm and unreal and not there touched him, pulling him back from the haze and nothingness he had been in, tucking on him until he was back inside himself, back in his head.

Like a sledge hammer the touch hit him and pulled him out of his self-induced flight from boredom.

Harry whipped around, just to stare in the red eyes of the man who had forced him to stare at the wall in the first place.

"Well done, youngest son of Erich Grey," the man said, his mouth curling into a mocking smile.

Harry's eyes widened.

"Until you sleep again," the man said and then he shoved Harry.

For a moment Harry expected to hit the wall behind him, but when he simply started to fall, he knew that he wouldn't.

Then his eyes flew open and he gasped.

"Eridanus!" His new mother cried relieved.

"You alright, Eridanus?" Percy asked while leaning in, but Harry couldn't answer.

The moment his eyes opened, he felt as if something had hit him over the head. His eyes burned, his stomach clenched and for one terrible moment his lungs refused to cooperate.

Then he managed to draw in a first, shaky and burning breath.

His skin pickled. It felt as if someone was poking him with a thousand needles.

"Perseus, call your father and uncle," Susanna Black instructed her oldest son, the former Percy Weasley.

Percy nodded and then hurried out of the room, calling for Pollux and Marius.

"Take some slow breaths, Eridanus," Susanna said. "Your father and uncle will be here to help you in a moment."

Harry couldn't even nod.

He was far too focused on the sensations he was swamped with.

There was a buzzing sound all around him. Susanna was a construct of nothingness, Percy one of black haze, fur and grey.

His vision swam.

Then the stone wall to his right seemed to fall away and he could feel the remains of the ritual. Feelings of blood and black and haze. Beneath him he could feel Percy and what had to be his new uncle and father – two hazy feelings of black, one wild and one oddly empty.

Then he drifted further until he could feel the buzzing around the house.

"Wards," his mind supplied helpfully. "Those are wards."

Then he felt himself drifting further.

He gasped and tried to reel in his feelings. For a moment the fight seemed to be a fruitless one, then the image of a patch of green wall came to his mind. A wall with thousands of darker dots sprinkled on it, a wall with a darker patch just outside of his vision, a wall with a little hole in it, showing the off-white colour of the wall beneath.

Like a security blanket, Harry grabbed the image and wrapped it around himself – and like when Pater had touched him, the image slammed into him and forced him back into his body, back into his mind.

He blinked.

"Eridanus," he could hear a voice through the dizziness that had started up thanks to his rapid return into his body. "Concentrate on my voice. Take deep breath for me, will you? Come on, child, inhale… yeah, that's fine… now exhale. Again. Inhale. And exhale…"

Harry found himself listening to the voice, following the instructions without asking.

"You're doing well," the voice told him before again instructing him how to breathe.

Finally, the dizziness started to vanish.

Harry blinked again, now noticing that he was shaking and half-buried in the arms of his mother who was sitting behind him, keeping him upright. In front of him knelt his father, his father's hands on his knees while the man was instructing him how to breathe.

To his right, a little bit away from him, stood Percy and Pollux.

Percy was pale as a ghost.

"Wh… what's happening?" He asked the older man next to him with a whisper. There was no way that his voice should have carried to Harry's ear, yet Harry heard him anyway.

"His mind is fighting with the magic he has gained by being named the heir of that unknown family," Pollux replied as quietly as Percy. "I'm not yet sure what this inherited magic entails since I have yet to determine which family he actually comes from, so I can't tell what exactly he's fighting with…"

"That sounds dangerous," Percy said concerned.

"It is," Pollux said. "If he doesn't find a way to control it, it might take him down and kill him."

Harry shuddered inwardly at that exclamation, his body still following Marius' instructions.

"Don't worry," Pollux added when he saw the fear in Percy's eyes. "He's reacting to your father which means he's already gaining control. Give him a few more minutes and he will be able to interact with us again."

" _The basics to survive, idiot boy,"_ Harry could hear the remembrance of Pater's voice telling him when Harry had asked what looking at a wall would teach him. Suddenly, staring at walls didn't seem such a high price anymore…

"Guess I will have to find some time in my day to simply stare at walls," Harry concluded shuddering. But then, if staring at walls would help him to control whatever magic he suddenly had at his disposal, staring at walls he would do.

"Eridanus," he heard his new father's voice in that moment. "Are you with us now?"

Harry blinked again and then took another deep breath.

"I… am," he finally said and his father smiled.

His mother's hand caressed his hair.

"How are you feeling, darling?" She asked him and Harry wondered if that was what it meant to have a mother. Ginny had also always called their children with pet-names. Harry swallowed hard at that thought before forcing himself away from it.

He concentrated on the answer to the question instead.

His skin still pickled, his face hurt and his eyes burned while his stomach felt as if it had been wrung out and hung up to dry. His lungs still burned and his breathing was a little bit laboured.

"Good," he said.

Pollux, Marius and Susanna exchanged a concerned look.

"No lies," Percy said darkly. "If you hide anything it might be overlooked now just to bite up you in the ass later."

Harry guessed that his former brother-in-law turned brother might be right this time around.

"Face hurts," he said. "Eyes burn, skin pickles; hard to breathe."

"Thank you," Percy said, sarcasm wrangling with concern in his voice.

"Let me take a look," Pollux said frowning before pulling out his wand and doing a spell.

Susanna, Marius and Percy looked at him expectantly.

Pollux just sighed when he got the results of his spell.

"He's mostly alright," he said. "I guess that his face hurts thanks to the burning. That will at least take another day or two until it's fully healed. The eyes… I guess that maybe his eyesight was corrected thanks to the magic he gained. The skin is thanks to the magic overload he had when he inherited his new family's magic. The only thing that concerns me a bit is the breathing. I guess it has to do with the fire, but I don't know what we can do about it for now. I guess we should simply monitor it. I don't dare to give him any internal healing potions for at least another day, yet."

"It's… fine…" Harry pressed out. "I'll… live…"

Percy snorted at that and rolled his eyes.

He said nothing, but Harry could see his… brother's thoughts quite clearly in his eyes.

It was clear that Percy wondered how his sister had put up with Harry. Harry sometimes had wondered the same thing in the past…

Then Percy grimaced and a pained look came to his eyes when he remembered that his sister was gone.

Harry reached out to him. He was just near enough to pat Percy's leg, pulling the older boy out of his memories.

"Eridanus," Susanna said in that moment, sounding half-concerned, half-amused. "That's not a matter to joke over."

"Of… course," Harry relented. "Sorry."

His mother just patted his hair before looking at Pollux and Marius.

"I'm going to continue monitoring him," she said. "You can go back to your research."

The men nodded.

"Do you want to go research with us or do you want to stay here?" Marius asked Percy.

For a moment, Percy looked torn.

"Can I… help as well?" Harry asked then. "Don't… wanna sleep."

The adults exchanged a glance, then Marius nodded.

"As long as you don't strain yourself and stay in bed," he relented.

In the end, Harry and Percy both stayed in Harry's new room reading and researching. Marius and Pollux had brought their research as well – they all were looking into Harry's prediction, his unknown family and the reasons of his burns – and Susanna was puttering around the house while making sure that everyone was fed and watered and didn't strain themselves.

Later that evening, Harry paused in his reading, put his books away and instead focused on the white wall behind his bed.

Percy was the one who noticed that odd behaviour first.

"Er… Ha… Eridanus," he said confused. "What are you doing?"

"Staring at the wall," Harry answered him without looking away from his spot. "It's a nice wall, all white and… wall-y."

Percy raised an eyebrow.

"Alright," he said, figuring that his… brother needed a break. "Have fun with that."

Harry just waved at him.

"Now I have to start all over again," he thought a bit annoyed. "Oh well…"

It was a nice wall, he was staring at, all white and… wall-y…

sSsSsSsSsSs

 _Well,_ _it_ _took_ _me_ _some_ _time_ _._ _I_ _didn't_ _actually_ _know_ _how_ _to_ _start_ _the_ _whole_ _thing_ _for_ _a_ _while._

 _Also, I_ _actually_ _wanted_ _to_ _take_ _Harry's training further, but it shouldn't be… ah, well,_ _I hope you liked_ _it_ _anyway_ _._

 _Ebenbild_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Placing:**_ _After the war - could be canon…_

xXxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxXxXxXx

sSsSsSsSs

 _ **Learning**_ _ **Curve**_

sSs

"Eridanus, Perseus," Marius said while entering Har… Eridanus' room. "How are you doing this fine morning?"

"I'm better," H… Eridanus said truthfully.

"Define better, H… Eri," Perseus said with narrowed eyes.

Eridanus sighed.

He hated it when his… brother wanted him to clarify.

"My skin doesn't hurt anymore, the same with my eyes. My face hurts less and it's easier to speak," he listed.

"Good," Marius said before handing him a potion.

"This is from your Uncle Pollux," he said. "It's for internal injuries that might not have healed by now. It should help with your throat."

Har… Eridanus nodded gratefully.

"Thank you, F… Marius," he said, interrupting himself when he noticed that there was no way that he could call the other man 'father' already. He wasn't ready for that, wasn't ready to claim another family after losing his old one so cruelly just such a short time ago.

Marius just patted his head soothingly.

"I understand that you're still very much missing your first parents and your siblings," he said. "Just know that Susanna and I don't mind if you only ever call us by our first names. And know that if you need someone to talk to, we will listen."

Perseus and Eridanus exchanged a glance at that, but in the end both of them nodded.

When Marius pointed at the vial in Har… Eridanus hand, the teen nodded reluctantly, opened the stopper and then downed it in one go.

 _Oh, how he hated to take potions!_

Marius on the other hand smiled and took back the vial.

"If you feel up to it this morning, you are allowed to leave the bed and come down for breakfast," he told his new younger son. "After that I can teach you both some runes and arithmancy, if you like. I learned quite a lot of that when I was young – before I knew that I would never be a wizard."

Harry was surprised when he couldn't hear any resentment or bitterness at that in his new father's voice.

"You… don't actually seem to mind," Percy noticed confused.

Marius smiled a surprising toothy smile.

"There are things that I can do that most wizards have no clue about," he said. "And I'm not helpless. I fought Grindelwald with my father and siblings – believe me, I know how to take on a wizard and win."

Yet, Harry and Percy both knew that Marius and Susanna would have lost their lives the day they met them…

Marius seemed to see their thoughts on their faces because he sighed.

"I'm not used to protect anyone," he said. "That – and I am getting old. I'm sure that the Death Eaters would have won back then if you hadn't helped us. I would have given them a good fight – but they would have won in the end, I'm not denying this."

Percy and Eridanus exchanged another glance.

They both guessed that that was exactly what happened in the future.

Harry raised an eyebrow at Perseus.

Percy sighed and in the end inclined his head.

The answer was a smile from Eridanus.

Marius just looked at both boys with mirth in his eyes, never knowing that he had interrupted a heated if whispered argument when he entered.

The two time-travellers had been fighting about their further actions in the past.

Perseus had all been for keeping his head down and trying to keep the changes to a minimum. Eridanus had argued that they had changed far too much already and that they should stop trying to preserve the timeline because it obviously wasn't working.

The last exchange in front of Marius decided the argument to Eridanus' favour.

Now Eridanus had just to see how long it would take until his… brother would be back to 'trying to preserve the timeline'…

"Now," Marius said. "Are you two coming down or do you want to stay here and rest a bit more?"

For a moment, Eridanus and Perseus looked at each other, not too sure about Marius' sudden change of topics. In the end, Har… Eridanus settled for the simple solution.

"We're coming down," Har… Eridanus answered instead of further speaking about the night they had stumbled upon Marius and Susanna. "I think I can manage some steps and some teaching."

With that he smiled at the man he was now allowed to call 'father' while acting as if he was a lot further healed than he actually was.

Perseus next to him rolled his eyes exasperated.

"You're acting as if you hadn't been on your deathbed just yesterday," he pointed out even if his voice hitched at the word 'deathbed'.

Eridanus flinched.

"I wasn't anywhere near death," he defended himself. "You're a bit too concerned there, Per…seus."

His… brother pinched his nose but didn't object and Marius shook his head fondly before turning around and leaving the room.

"Put on some clothes and come down," he told them and then closed the door to Ha… Eridanus' room behind himself.

Eridanus looked at Perseus.

Perseus returned the look and Eridanus decided that if he didn't bring up their previous topic it would come back to bite him later.

"Did you truly still think that we could somehow preserve the timeline?" He asked incredulously while acting that Perseus' decision to accept Eridanus' decision with Marius in the room didn't happen.

From the look Perseus send him, it was a good idea to ask that again. Percy had always been stubborn – and just because they had lost their family and were back in time didn't mean that he lost that trait.

The gleam in Percy's eyes told Harry that the man had been about to dismiss his previous acquisition to Harry again.

Har… Eridanus rolled his eyes.

"You can't actually still think that we can keep the timeline like it was before we arrived, can you?" He asked with an incredulous look towards his …brother.

Perseus sighed.

"I thought that we should at least try," he replied. "I mean, I know we changed a lot already, but… shouldn't it be saveable somehow?"

Harry sighed and shook his head.

"I doubt it," he said. "After all, we changed a lot already."

"Not too much!" Percy objected.

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Marius and Susanna are still alive," he said slowly, repeating his arguments from before Marius had entered. "The Grey family hasn't died out because of us. The Blacks have two more heirs. Pollux Black and Marius Black are obviously talking with each other again after years of just writing or no contact. It might seem 'not much' but considering that the Black family was deeply involved in the first war I fear it's far too much already."

Percy sighed and then inclined his head.

"I give," he said. "I already gave in when Marius was in here and I won't change my mind about it now. Just… Harry, please let us try to change as few things as possible!"

Harry groaned.

"I'll think about it," he said. "Just know that I don't plan on deliberately changing anything right now."

Percy thought that over.

In the end, he nodded.

"Alright," he said to his… brother. "Thank you, H… Eri."

The younger boy nodded and then stood up.

Five minutes later both boys entered the kitchen of their new home.

Susanna was cooking breakfast.

The moment she noticed them entering, she smiled and gestured at the table.

"Sit down," she said. "Breakfast is nearly ready."

After breakfast, Marius sat them down and started them on arithmancy with a rune or two thrown in.

"We will work on actual runes either tonight or tomorrow after breakfast," he promised. "For now we'll concentrate on arithmancy."

In other words, poor Percy would be bored…

Later that day, Pollux came back and took over their introduction to ancient runes.

It was when Susanna called them to dinner that he finally brought up another issue.

"Marius, Susanna," Pollux said before pulling out a stack of paper.

Marius looked at the paper and raised an eyebrow.

"What's all this?" He asked concerned.

"One time nearly fifteen years of a fake life, and one time nearly fourteen years of one," Pollux replied before spreading the papers on the kitchen table, despite of Susanna's protests that they should eat now and look over the stuff he brought later.

Marius frowned and pulled one of the stacks towards himself.

"That's all muggle," he said with a frown.

Pollux nodded.

"Since you and Susanna live in the muggle world, I thought it best to ensure that everything looks legal there first," he said. "Don't worry, it isn't just these papers. I made sure that people won't question anything. It's properly filed not only in the wizarding world but in the muggle world as well."

Susanna nodded.

"Good," she said. "That only leaves the people we regularly interact with."

"Give me a list and a day or two and I will make sure that they remember your sons as well," Pollux replied unconcerned.

Percy frowned.

"Modifying memories of muggles without license is prohibited," he said concerned.

Polled waved it off.

"Don't worry about it, Perseus," he said. "There are some privileges when you are part of the Black family."

Percy's eyes narrowed.

"But –"

"You will get used to it, soon," Pollux said. "Just give it a few months and you will know that there are some difference when it comes to the Greys or the Blacks."

Harry was quite sure that his new uncle was talking about the political clout and the blackmail material the Black family had access to when he talked about 'difference'. Harry also doubted that Per…seus would in any way or form accept the fact that their new family had no qualms to use things like that to get what they wanted…

Percy snapped his mouth shut, but his face still showed his disapproval. But then, Har… Eridanus wasn't sure himself if he was alright with the fact that Pollux basically forged and oblivated to ensure they had the proper background – on the other hand, Eridanus was quite aware that this was the only way Percy and himself would gain a legal identity again…

Marius meanwhile had taken a closer look at the papers and scrolls his brother had brought to them to sign.

"Neither of them have done their OWLs according to this," he said slowly. "And I'm also sure that you picked their dates of birth randomly…"

Pollux pouted.

"It wasn't random," he said. "I had to choose dates that explained why Perseus hadn't yet taken his OWLs. I may have made him a bit younger than he is, but nobody will know and nobody will question it if you send a fifteen year old to Hogwarts for his OWL year. If I made him older, people would wonder why you didn't send him at the proper time before."

Percy frowned at his new uncle and opened his mouth to object, but Pollux beat him to it.

"I know you're already fifteen and should take your OWLs this year," he said. "But we need to hide that you can be related to the Greys in any way or form. Making you a bit younger will ensure that nobody will question it if you start to attend Hogwarts in the coming fall."

Perseus raised an eyebrow.

"So you decided that I was born on the first of September?" He asked sceptically.

Pollux shrugged.

"That's just a few months from now and you will officially again fifteen if you decide to attend Hogwarts," he said.

Perseus looked quite unhappy with that.

Harry couldn't fault him.

They were in the past, looked like bloody teenagers and now their new age was reduced even further by their new uncle so that nobody would get suspicious. It was agitating!

"So," he said slowly. "When's my new birthday?"

Pollux smiled proudly.

"Hallowe'en," he said and Harry had the awful thought that his uncle was right and that that date wasn't randomly chosen at all…

"Fate must hate me," he thought despairingly, just to be brought out his thoughts by his uncle's next comment.

"The only thing left is going to Gringotts," he said. "I have to ensure that you get a proper vault as sons of the Black family and are recognised as part of the family."

Percy and Harry exchanged another uneasy glance.

"Will the goblins be able to tell that we aren't Blacks by birth?" Harry asked nervously.

Pollux shook his head.

"No," he said. "Even their rituals will only list you with your new legal name – naming you born Blacks. They will be able to tell you what else you will inherit, but you will only be known as Blacks to them."

Har… Eridanus raised an eyebrow.

"So my unknown heritage -?"

"The goblins might give us the answers we have researched fruitlessly," Pollux said. "But that's just a might. You're not of age yet, meaning that even if they have the answers and will make sure that the ministry won't take your inheritance, there's a huge chance that they won't tell you about it for another two to three years."

Harry nodded glumly.

If he knew his luck, he wouldn't find out until the last moment, like always.

"I hate being left in the dark," he thought to himself. But at least this time around everybody else around him wasn't any wiser.

"Perseus, Eridanus," Pollux said in that moment, his face serious. "When we go to Gringotts in the next few days, you will already have to act like boys being raised by Blacks all their lives."

Harry and Percy frowned, but Marius nodded and Susanna looked at her husband and his brother as if she agreed with them.

"Therefore," Pollux continued. "You will have to learn how to behave like a Black. We will add those lessons to your schedule immediately."

"But you will continue only after dinner," Susanna intercepted. "Now pack away those papers and let's eat. You can teach the boys while their father and I sign and fill out those papers after dinner."

Pollux frowned, but in the end he nodded and gave in.

This ended with Harry and Percy having etiquette lessons for the rest of the evening while their new parents gained 'legal' custody over them.

They ended the lessons when Harry nearly fell asleep at the table.

"Let's stop here," Pollux said. "Eridanus, take your potions and go to bed. We will continue with this tomorrow."

That schedule would be their lives for the next two weeks – not even adding the nightly lessons Harry had thanks to Pater.

xXxXxXx

That night, Harry found himself again in the green room with Pater.

He stared at the man… ghost… whatever.

"Do I have to stare at walls again?" He asked unhappily.

Pater just raised an eyebrow.

"You're the one who decided to stare at walls in your waking time as well," he pointed out amused.

Harry pouted.

"It helps," he admitted with a sigh. "If I didn't do it, I'm sure I would have long since lost my mind."

Pater nodded seriously.

"Most likely," he said unbothered.

Harry just sighed again.

"So… am I staring at walls again tonight?" He asked. He had been staring at walls the whole last night after going to bed after research. He had been staring at walls before going to bed and after waking up and before arguing with Percy as well.

He was tired of walls.

Pater snorted amused.

"As long as you promise to continue your exercise, I won't make you," he said finally and Harry sighed in relief.

"So what -?"

"Tell me about the arithmancy and ancient runes you learned today," the spectre replied and leaned back against one of the green walls of the room they were in.

Harry frowned at the man, but dragged up all the knowledge he had acquired today. Harry was surprised when he noticed that he hadn't forgotten a thing.

"Very good," the man said in the end. "It seems that your Occlumency is coming along nicely."

Harry stared at Pater in confusion.

"Occlumency?" He repeated with a frown. "I don't know any Occlumency."

The spectre just raised an eyebrow.

"What else do you think I'm teaching you when I force you to look at the wall," he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry thought about that.

He hadn't actually believed that he was learning anything until he was forced to use his remembrance of the wall to free himself from his new and disconcerting power.

"I don't know," he finally said slowly. "Maybe control over that weird view I suddenly posses?"

The answer was another raised eyebrow.

"Seeing magic is a gift," Pater said coolly, "One that is specifically bound to the beast-speaker families like ours. It's not a 'weird view' at all."

Harry gulped.

"But you are at least partly right about your guess," Pater continued. "I'm teaching you control over your gift – with Occlumency."

Harry frowned.

"I'm rubbish at Occlumency," he pointed out confused.

The spectre sighed and pinched his nose.

"You're a beast-speaker, youngest son of Erich Grey," he said. "You have been one before I even met you. Only the most powerful beast-speakers are able to overcome their shortcoming in normal Occlumency and learn it like any non-speaker. You're definitely not _that_ powerful."

Harry frowned.

"I'm not a beast-speaker," he pointed out.

"You're a parselmouth," the spectre replied. "I saw you speaking in one of your memories."

Harry sighed.

"It was the horcrux in my head which gave me the ability to speak Parseltongue," he pointed out cautiously with a sigh. "It wasn't my ability but one gained through the soul-piece in my head. I lost the ability the moment I lost the horcrux."

Harry had expected several reactions to that revelation – but he hadn't expected the spectre to actually _laugh_ at him.

"It doesn't matter how you acquired your ability," Pater said. "It doesn't matter that you think you lost it. The horcrux in your head was just a transmitter. It might have been the original beast-speaker, but you grew up with it in your head. Your whole formative years it was there, influencing you and helping to form your soul. It doesn't matter that it's gone and you think you lost the ability. Your soul mimicked the grown soul in your head for far too long to not be affected."

Pater grinned.

His grin was feral and sharp.

"You, youngest son of Erich Grey, are a Parselmouth," he said. "And unlike that mutilated part of abomination you call a horcrux, your soul is whole and a beast-speaker through and through."

Harry opened his mouth to object, but Pater continued already without waiting for Harry's objection.

"If you hadn't been, you would have died the moment I touched you the first time. No savage of a normal wizard would have been able to survive a true beast-speaker's touch. You would have been burned to crisps long before you even knew what was happening to you."

Harry's eyes widened.

"This… your actions the first time we met would have killed me?" He cried shocked.

Pater waved it off.

"I already knew that it wouldn't," he said. "The moment I met you I knew you were the only one to inherit my line and magic. You are a beast-speaker, touched by death and yet alive. I was lucky to meet you that night because my strength was vanning and a couple of days later I wouldn't have had the strength to give you my line anymore. My blood would have been lost in time like it had been in your future."

Harry looked at the spectre in confusion.

"What do you mean?" he asked frowning.

Pater sighed.

"One half of a millennia is the time granted for a soul to stay in the in-between and find an heir," he said. "After that time, there will be no heir and nobody of that family ever again."

Harry's eyes widened.

"My time would have been up in less than a week when I met you and found you to be the perfect heir," Pater said. "You were a beast-speaker, touched by death and accepted into a family that was grey and not light like the one you were born to. You gained favour by said family and changed into the youngest son of Erich Grey."

Harry stared at Pater.

"But… but… I'm not a Parselmouth!" He exclaimed. "And you said that I was weak with not being able to learn Occlumency and all that!"

Pater scoffed.

"Not weak, youngest son of Erich Grey," he replied amused. "Just not as magically inclined as the man who calls himself a Dark Lord, currently."

Harry gulped when Pater reminded him of the fact that Voldemort as a Parselmouth was an Occlumens and a Legilimens as well. Harry didn't even want to know how much power that implied if a Parselmouth should be rubbish at normal mind magic…

"Voldemort," Harry whispered and Pater inclined his head.

"The monster you fought and won against," he said. "The monster you will fight again."

Harry frowned.

"I'm not playing their figurehead again," he refused coolly.

Pater grinned a feral grin.

"You won't," he said. "You're going to be my heir, after all. Not one of us has ever fought a fair fight."

Harry's eyes widened.

"What -?"

That was the moment memories that weren't his own flooded his mind, taking him with them.

Blood, gore and broken wards featured heavily in his mind.

Deadly silence, unearthly fast movements and enhanced silver weapons instead of a wand.

"It's time for your next lesson, youngest son of Erich Grey," he heard Pater's voice over the chaos of the memories. "Take this knowledge and make it yours. Let it burn and mark your body, mind and soul."

Harry, desperately reached for the memory of the wall, forcing himself out of the storm of memories coming down onto him until he could grab a hold of them and wrestle them down like he had wrestled down his ability to see the wards.

Harry woke with a gasp.

His eyes snapped open.

His chest hurt for air.

His face burned and his muscles ached when the memories embodied themselves not only inside his mental place but inside his muscle memories as well.

"Well done," a voice, not even loud enough to be the wind whispered inside Harry's mind.

Harry forced himself to breath, before closing his odd blood-red, gold and bronze eyes.

When he would wake up the day after, the red in his eyes would have turned green again.

In the in-between, the sprectre of a man who died five hundred years ago, laughed a chilling laugh of death.

There was a new player in the game – and light and dark would tremble in his wake…

The Iudex Asccabanis was finally back.

sSsSsSsSsSs

 _A_ _bit_ _more_ _training_ _for_ _Harry_ _and_ _a_ _bit_ _more_ _explaining in this chapter.._ _._

 _Well,_ _it_ _took_ _me_ _some_ _time_ _._ _I_ _was a bit preoccupied with other things and had to keep putting off finishing this chapter_ _._ _Sorry_ _about_ _that_ _._

 _I hope you liked_ _it anyway_ _._

 _Ebenbild_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Placing:**_ _After the war - could be canon…_

xXxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxEchoxXxXxXxXxVoicexXxXxXxXxXxXx

sSsSsSsSs

 _ **Slipping Control**_

sSs

When Harry finally woke, he had a headache.

He groaned and closed his eyes again when it felt like needles attacking them the moment he opened them.

"Eridanus?" Harry forced his eyes open to look at the one speaking to him from the door. It was his… mother.

She looked at him in concern.

"Are you alright, Eridanus?" She asked him, her face warm and open and for a moment Harry wanted nothing but attack her just to show her that being so open was dangerous – was a way to get killed.

He wressled down that thought, disgusted with himself.

But even when he finally subdued it, it didn't change that memories that weren't his own were cursing through his head, showing him danger, darkness and evil – such evil.

Harry shuddered – something that his… mother noticed immediately.

She stepped inside the room and came to his bed.

As if she had never done something else in her life, she sat down next to Harry on the bed and reached out to touch his forehead.

"Nightmare?" She asked him concerned and Harry looked away.

He had nightmare – how couldn't he, after losing everything and everyone? – but it were the memories he had gained thanks to his lessons last night that made him shiver.

So much blood, so much gore… so much evil!

He shuddered again and his… mother pulled him close to her body to sooth him.

"It's alright, Eri," she whispered to him warmly. "I know I can't turn back time, but if you want to talk… if you need somebody to listen – just come to me, will you? I will always listen to you, I promise."

The words were oddly soothing even considering that Harry was a grown man stuck in a teenage-body and Harry wondered if that was what it meant to have a mother…

"I," his voice was dry and he swallowed thickly. "I don't think I can talk about it."

It was the truth.

Whether it was his nightmares or the memories he had gained from his lessons – he simply couldn't talk about them. At least not yet…

He closed his eyes again, but instead of pulling away, he hid his face in the crook of his new mother's neck, wondering if he would be ever willing to accept another family after losing the first two so cruelly.

And in his mind, fire and death took over his memories – fire, death and the broken and empty, so empty eyes of his daughter, staring at him accusingly in death…

He swallowed thickly again, his breath hitching and when his… mother pulled him close, the first tears started to fall.

They were gone.

All gone.

And the only one that was left was Percy.

Harry would never forgive himself for their deaths – and he would do everything, everything he could, to ensure that it would never happen again!

His hands fisted into the back of his new mother's shirt and he buried his head further into her warm embrace, grateful that she didn't say a thing – neither about his tears nor his hold on her.

"Cry," she told him. "It's alright. It's alright to grieve."

And that was what Harry did – his mind full of memories not only of his own life, but of the lives he remembered thanks to Pater as well…

xXxXxXx

Percy stood at the door to his brother's room and could do nothing but look. He was leaning against the doorframe. He had been ready to enter and wake his brother – just to see his brother and …mother sit there, his brother silently crying into his mother's embrace.

So Percy had frozen at the door – unable to enter and unable to leave as well. It was a hear-wrenching sight to see. Percy had known the man his brother had been for decades already – and in all the time he had known the man, he had never seen the man cry once. Well – that wasn't right. Harry cried, but he cried silently, never once truly giving in and grieving as deeply as Percy had done often enough since Audrey and Molly had been killed. But then, Harry had lost so much more in his life than Percy ever had and Percy had always thought that Harry had spend all his tears, all his deep and long lasting grief long before Fred had died, making him unable to cry and truly grieve anymore.

Percy had loved the other man for it, because it had made it easier for him to cry after his family died – he had needed somebody strong to lean on, after all.

But Percy had loathed it as well, because Harry was the younger one and shouldn't it be Percy to hold the other man together while crying for his losses?

So seeing Harry cry now – and not just cry, but truly grieve – in the arms of their new mother, broke Percy's heart while at the same time made him unable to look away as if he needed to be there to witness that unusual and tragic occurrence…

So Percy stood there, in the doorframe, staring at the heart-wrenching scene inside without being able to look away and without being able to enter.

He didn't know how long he actually stood there – he only knew that some time most have passed at least when a warm hand touched his shoulder and squeezed it.

"Are you alright, son?" Marius asked him while looking over Percy's shoulder into the room of Harry.

"I can't believe he's crying," Percy whispered before he was actually aware that he was talking at all. "He always seemed so strong. I can't remember him grieving like that at all – and he lost at least as much as I did…"

"Everybody grieves differently," Marius said gruffly while squeezing Percy's shoulder again. "If he hasn't cried and grieved before – it's good that he's doing it now."

Percy nodded slowly and his hand automatically came up to touch the beaded bag he had been carrying around with him since they left the Leaky Cauldron and got to the Blacks.

He hadn't yet looked inside it, hadn't even asked Harry if he wanted to look inside to know what exactly they had packed before leaving the future. Percy knew that just seeing the bag would have hurt Harry, so he had taken it and stashed it away in his robes when they left the Leaky Cauldron to search for a drink – not bearing to force Harry to carry it and not bearing to leave it behind.

"But why now?" He finally whispered, a bit confused. "Why now – after everything else that has happened within the last few days?"

His new father sighed and shrugged.

"Maybe it was time," he said helplessly. "Maybe it was a nightmare triggering it – who knows?"

Percy could believe the last idea. He might have not known Harry as closely as some other people in his family had, but even he knew of the nightmares his brother-in-law sometimes suffered through.

Percy wondered what Harry remembered of that day Audrey and Molly and all the others died…

Then he shook his head.

It was nothing he needed – nothing he actually wanted! – to know!

They were gone.

That was the most important, the most true and hated truth.

Everything else didn't actually matter…

"It will never be alright again," he whispered. "They're gone… they're gone…"

The tightening of his new father's hand on his shoulder told him that his father had heard him.

"I'm sorry, son," Marius said, sounding defeated. "I wish I could help you with your grief, but the only thing Sanna and I can do is stand by your side and assure you that you're still not alone in this world."

Percy swallowed, while trying to blink back his own tears that suddenly filled his eyes.

"It wasn't fair," he finally whispered, loud enough for Marius to hear but not loud enough so that Harry could hear his words as well. "They should have still been there. They should have still been there!"

"They should have," Marius agreed while changing his grip on Percy's shoulder into a hug. "And it will never be fair that they aren't. But just because they aren't, it doesn't mean that you and your brother should stop living as well. You're still young, you've still your whole life – don't give up on it just because they're gone!"

Percy wanted to object, wanted to scream at the man holding him that he had no idea what it was like to loose a child – that he had no idea what it felt like to feel a piece of you being ripped away, forever out of reach, forever gone…

But try as he might, he couldn't.

He couldn't rage, scream and grieve in a loud and desperate way. The only thing he could do was drown his sorrow in alcohol – or in the shoulder his new father offered now that Percy had dissolved into tears again…

In the end, Percy didn't know how long he cried into his new father's arms, but when he finally calmed down, his new father was still holding him and his uncle was leaning against the wall just across the hallway, understanding in his eyes.

Percy let go of his new father and turned to look at H… Eridanus who was sending him an embraced smile while still being enveloped in his new mother's arms.

"It seems like I came to an unfitting time," Pollux said, but his eyes were calm and concerned when he looked at his two nephews.

Percy wiped his tears.

"I'm so –"

He was stopped before he could finish his apology.

"Don't even think about apologizing," Pollux said. "Not only did you loose your parents and siblings just a short while ago – but you're also now a part of the house of Black. We don't apologize if we're not basically forced to."

With that he raised his nose in an expression of stuck-up-ness that didn't fit at all to the normally earnest but quite cordial man Percy had gotten to know over the last few days.

Marius next to Percy snorted in amusement.

"Leave being stuck-up to the Malfoys, Polly," he teased his brother. "They have far more training in acting like that!"

Pollux threw his brother a disgusted look.

"Do I look like a girl to you, Marius, that you have to call me Polly?" He complained and Percy wondered if the two men were actually bantering to ensure that neither Harry nor he would continue to feel embarassed by their crying fit.

It was Susanna who answered the question Pollux had thrown at his brother before Marius could even think about it.

"Well, Pollux," she said. "The long hair would already fit, don't you think so, too?"

Pollux looked at her in mock-hurt.

"I'm definitely training my nephews in witty come-backs today," he replied. "So that I'm not outnumbered again the next time we talk."

Harry snorted.

"Or you could be outnumbered even further, Uncle Pollux," he said amused, just to stop with wide eyes when he registered that he had actually called the other man 'uncle'.

Their new mother just looked at him proudly before ruffling his hair while Pollux looked as if he had been hit with a brick.

Marius raised his eyebrow at his stunned brother.

"You alright, Pollux?" He asked, a bit concerned when his brother stared at him as if he didn't actually see him.

"I'm an uncle," Pollux finally said faintly and Marius exchanged a worried look with Susanna.

"You've been an uncle for over a decade now," Marius pointed out. "Dorea's got a son as well, you know?"

Pollux shook his head as if to clear it.

"Dorea's not talking to me anymore, Marius," he said unhappily. "She has stopped to do so since she married Charlus Potter. I haven't seen her son at all."

Marius frowned.

"But the others –"

Pollux shook his head.

"You and I were always the closest," he said with regret in his voice, before hesitating and then continuing. "I think that was the first time I've been called 'uncle' in more than a decade…"

For a moment he looked nearly fondly at H… Eridanus.

"It's actually nice to be called that again," he said. "Startling, but very nice."

Marius smiled at his brother in understanding.

Then Susanna crooked her head.

"If you want to," she said. "We still need a godfather or two for the boys."

Ha… Eridanus startled at that and his eyes widened while he looked up at his new mother. For a moment, Percy was confused by Harry's reaction, then he remembered that Ha… Eridanus' godfather had died when the other man had been fifteen, if he remembered the stories he had heard correctly. Percy wondered how Harry would deal with having a godfather again – especially if that godfather was again part of the Black family…

"Finding a godfather isn't that important right now," Pollux said and waved it off. "Ensuring that they're registered with the House of Black through Gringotts on the other hand is. It's April now, we don't have a lot of time to teach them everything they need to know to act like a true Black. If you want to send them to Hogwarts, they will have to be ready in August, after all."

H… Eridanus frowned at that.

"Do we truly have to go to Hogwarts?" He asked, clearly unhappy with the idea – not that Percy was feeling differently.

"It would be best," Pollux said. "Not a lot of children are home-schooled – and even less when the parents are squibs and the children are about to sit their O.W.L.s. So just for appearance sake it would be best if you joined Hogwarts."

Then he looked at Harry thoughtfully.

"Well," he said. "Since you're actually a year younger than your brother, you could stay home for another year if you want to, Eridanus."

Percy's eyes widened at that and fear clutched his heart. He might not have always gotten along with Harry – but he was definitely not ready to go anywhere without him. Percy didn't want to give up the last sense of familiarity that early at all.

From Harry's expression, the other one thought the same, because he shook his head.

"No," he declared. "If Per…seus has to go, then I will go as well!"

Pollux nodded.

"I already thought as much," he said, understanding in his eyes. "And that's the reason why we have to go and ensure that you're listed in Gringotts as soon as possible. With you being listed there as well, nobody will even think about questioning your heritage."

Harry and Percy exchanged a look. Then Harry nodded slowly.

"Alright," he gave in and stepped out of his new mother's embrace. "So I guess that means we will have to go to Gringotts today?"

Pollux inclined his head.

"That's exactly what it means," he said.

"But not until after breakfast," Susanna added sternly.

And while Percy and Harry were pushed to get clothed, Percy looked at Harry and saw him reaching up and tucking on his left earlobe as if he was reaching for something that should be there but wasn't.

The emptiness between his fingers seemed to startle Harry and he removed his hand just to stare at it in confusion.

"Harry?" Percy whispered after confirming that their new parents couldn't hear them.

Harry turned his head and looked at Percy, his green eyes looking oddly… red in the light of the single lamp that shown in the darkened room from the hallway.

"I'm not yet ready," Harry said with fearful eyes.

Percy frowned, before sighing.

"We will have to accept our new place now," he said. "I'm not ready to call myself a Black as well – but if our new parents and uncle think we need to assure that we're part of the archives in Gringotts then we have no choice but to do it anyway."

Harry shook his head.

"It's not that," he said and suddenly Percy had the feeling that Harry was remembering things that he shouldn't be able to remember. "I'm not ready, Percy."

Harry's red eyes pierced him.

"I'm not ready to step up as the heir of my ancestor."

For a second, Percy imagined to see the red and golden eyes of the ghost who had interrupted the ritual in Harry's eyes.

He shuddered.

Suddenly, he had the feeling, that it was not Harry's new heritage as a Black that actually frightened his brother.

And for a moment, Percy desperately wished for another try with the time-turner – even if it was just to stop himself from having the idea of going through that ritual that had changed Harry without truly knowing the ritual inside-out.

But unfortunately his regrets came far too late. There was no changing the time-line now – at least not if they didn't want to destroy themselves while trying to stop themselves from making those mistakes.

Some things were irreversible – and the ritual that changed their heritages regretfully was one of them…

sSsSsSsSsSs

 _Not a lot of story development – but I felt that showing their inner workings a bit was needed as well. Next time: Gringotts!_

 _I hope you liked_ _it_ _._

 _Ebenbild_


End file.
